March 30 the cream corn is gone!

This is Patty again, I'm sure Bart will be able to be back blogging fairly soon, so bare with my ramblings.
Cream corn is gone, is kind of a strange title but the explanation is simple. When they freeze stem cells as they did Barts, they freeze them in a chemical DMSO. When they put them back in, it has a smell that everyone else can smell, Bart is they only one that cannot smell it. It smells different to everyone. My nose smelled sweet cream corn, some others it smelled like tomatoe soup. Go figure, the things you learn.....
Bart has had a few pretty rough days, his nausea has intensified, it is brought on by any motion, so basically it is like being on a cruise, without any of the fun. Last night however they brought out his fourth nausea medicine, it can only be given every three days, but this morning he is feeling better! Maybe we have found the magic bullet. His numbers have finally reached bottom, so from here we can only go up.He will be scheduled for a transfusion possibly tomorrow, he also will receive his first neupogen shot, this will stimulate his stem cells, hopefully to go and conquer.
We are pleased that other than the nausea, he has been pain free and mouth sore free, which is such a blessing. We are so thankful for the nursing staff they have been fantastic.
I would be remiss not to thank everyone for all the well wishes. From the sweet little Nathan,Jacob, Todd and Ben for making our cancer monster we can shoot with the nerd gun. To my friend Donna Arnold taking the time to come up and keep me company, from all the calls and prayers. We are so lucky.
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts, Bart and Patty

March 27 it's me Patty

Thought I'de write today, day 3, in stem cell terms, on behalf of Bart. We seem to be in the thick of it, Bart is doing well , just seems to have an issue with keeping his eyes open and keeping his stomach on an even keel, which they tell us is par for the course. We have been experiencing slow dropping of his numbers, white cells ect. But no fevers as of yet.
Bart was able to have a lot of visiitors this weekend because everyone was here for our nieces wedding, which was beautiful. His mom and dad,both bothers and family. We are so grateful for the time spent, hospitals can make you crazy, the same thing everyday, so it is good to have the distraction. Also our kids were up Amanda, Ryan, and Matt it is so good to have a little bit of home come to us.
We are grateful for modern medicine we are up to 3 types of nausea medicine, 1 atavan, this is mild with a slight sedative effect 2. Mannol which they tell us is all the good stuff out of the marijuana plant without the buzz, doesn't seem quite fair. None the less this is to help increase appetite, so I guess that craving thing is true. 3. Then a patch sort of like the motion sickness patch you can get when you fly or go boating. You would think with all these things we could have one heck of a party....no such luck, just trying to keep his lunch down.
We are still in good spirits, we know this week will be hard as his numbers continue to go down, but we have faith that there is real progress on the other end.
We'de like to express our thanks for everyone that fasted on Barts behalf, we know that there are many prayers said for us daily, we cannot express our gratitude sufficiently. Thank you

3/21/2011 Welcome to Day -3

Day -3 is what the BMT team refers to today for me. Day 0 will be on Thursday when they give me the stem cells. Then all the days will count positive from then on.

I guess you probably guessed by now that I am now an in patient in the hospital and I've spent the day hooked up to an infusion pump with liquids going into me all day. I had my first dose of Melphalan Chemo a while ago and so far everything is going well up here on the 8th floor east wing in LDS hospital. My nurse today is Kyle, he and the staff are taking good care of me and of course Patty always takes great care of me.

I'll get my second dose of Melphalan tomorrow on day -2 and then have a rest day on Wednesday before the transplant on Thursday.

Everyone travel safely and I hope to see some of you (the non sick or infected ones) this weekend.

3/18/2011 My Last Weekend of Freedom

We met with Dr. Asch from the BMT team this afternoon to go over my latest test results and see where we go from here. The result of the meeting is that I will be admitted to the hospital on Monday morning around 9:00 am to begin the transplant process. Most of the numbers were very good, a couple weren't quite as good as we hoped, but they were good enough to go forward.

The schedule as it stands right now is this: Monday and Tuesday I get the Melphalan Chemo treatments which are a high dose chemo that will basically destroy my immune system and clear the deck in preparation of getting the stem cell transplant by infusion on Thursday after a rest day Wednesday. Then from there, I begin the process of replacing all the blood and platelets in my system over the next couple of weeks. I will need transfusions and lots of good care to get through it to be ready to be released to come back to the apartment in 2 to 3 weeks after getting the transplant. Then hopefully about 2 weeks after that, we can head for home.

I will be a serious bubble boy during the time in the hospital and while back at the apartment, then gradually getting better after that. I hope to be able to have visitors, but only if you're feeling well and are pretty sure you haven't be exposed to anyone or anything that might compromise my system. Unfortunately it means I will not be able to attend the wedding or reception next week, but Patty and most of the kids will represent for us. Unfortunately Josh won't be able to come up for the festivities because of school tests and preparation.

We're very optimistic that the procedures will be successful, but still hope that all of you will keep us and our medical providers in your thoughts and prayers during the next couple of weeks while the process takes place. The BMT team at LDS have a very successful track record with this sort of thing, but we need all the help we can get.

Until the next time, everyone be safe and well.

3/14/2011 Tests today

It's Monday and we just got back from the hospital after I had blood drawn for tests, an EKG and another chest X-Ray. I've got to go back up to the hospital tomorrow morning for a full body series of X-Rays, the same series that I had last April when they found the two leisions in my T-9 vertebrae. This should be the last tests before I go in patient next week, at least we're hoping that after the meeting we have with the doctors this Friday afternoon they will set a date to admit me.

The reality of the time change will set in tomorrow morning as I have to get up for an 8:15 am appointment, up until now, we didn't have any early appointments so the time change really hadn't taken effect on us, should be interesting.

Not that I'm looking forward to being admitted, that means the really serious stuff starts and in a week or so I will be in sad shape. But we've got to do it and take the steps to get on the other side of this stuff.

We've got some texts from Amanda, they are having a great time and we're looking forward to hearing about their trip when they get back.

It was overcast and sprinkling this morning, but this afternoon is turning out to be a pretty nice day. Hope everyone's day and week are going well and I'll check in again soon. Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers and support.

3/11/2011 Enjoying the Great Weather

Nothing medical going on, we don't have an appointment until Monday but wanted to make a couple of notes.

We spent a good day today at the Hill Air Force Base Air Museum, I didn't even know they had one until Patty said something about it after she and the boys had gone to Roy to eat at the Burger Bar which had been on Diners Drive Inns and Dives. It was a very enjoyable time at the museum, they have aircraft from the 20's and 30's through WWII and up to a B1. We had a great time and learned a lot about early aircraft and their uses and time frames, I would suggest a trip there to anyone that has an interest in aircraft, especially military aircraft, equipment, engines, missiles and things associated with them.

After we went through the museum, we went across the freeway and ate at the Burger Bar, it was pretty good.

On the "It's a small world" front, I forgot to mention this in the last post. When we were at the hospital for the educational meetings we had, I went back to get my vitals taken and all the prep work they normally do on me. While I was in the back, Patty was sitting next to a couple and during some conversation found out they were from Cedar and upong further conversation found out that they are Misty's (That's the Plank_5 from the followers list) aunt and uncle, he had a stem cell tranplant several months ago and they were up for a follow up check. He looked good and said everything was going well, he had some different challenges because his was a donor supplied transplant and the stem cells weren't from his siblings.

Our prayers go out to those in the tragedy in Japan.

Hope everyone has a great weekend and we'll post again soon.

3/9/2011 Time for a new Look

After pulling handfuls of hair out of my head while washing my hair the past several mornings, we made the decision that it was time to admit the Chemo had done it's job and I was rapidly going bald. You can see I didn't shave it, so there is always going to be a little bit falling out. We had an experience at the shop. The lady asked me what type of a cut I was after and so I quietly told her I was a Chemo patient and it was time to take it off because I was losing my hair. So, after getting buzzed, I went to the counter to pay for it and the ladies had kind of funny looks on their faces, they said that the guy that had been in the chair behind me and had finished a couple of minutes before me had paid for my haircut, he must have overheard what I told the lady that cut my hair. The act touched Patty and I quite deeply and we were very appreciative of his compassion on our behalf, now I need to look around for a good opportunity to pay it forward for someone else.

We had some educational meetings with staff members yesterday to give us an idea what life on the ward would be like, no real surprises other than some of the restrictions due to my lack of having a full immune system to fight off bugs.

The doctors and staff had a meeting today concerning where I go now and what the next steps are. I have appointments next Monday March 14th to get some tests re-run to see where my MM markers are at this time. We will then have an appointment on Friday March 18th to get the calendar on when everything will take place.

Cara came by tonight she was in Provo dealing with wedding things and took some time at the end of the day to come see us. Patty and I are grateful for that, it is nice to have company to break the day up and they really miss each other's company that we came to be around them quite a bit during the past year or so. We wish her well in her travels back to Parowan tomorrow night.

The medicines are starting to flush out of my body again and I'm feeling quite a bit better than I did last week and even over the weekend, I'm grateful for that. Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers, I'll write again soon.

3/7/2011 The Collection process is Complete

Figured I'd better get a blog coming since Amanda already knows and I'm sure is hitting everyone she knows with texting and facebook and her blog.

We got a call this afternoon from the BMT Clinic with the good news. The Cytoxan protocol did exactly what what they wanted it to do, it crushed everything back and then with the help of the Neupogen and the other growth additives they went right to the bones, or where ever it is that stem cells hang out before becoming stem cells. They kicked them in the butt and got them working so well that today was most likely my last collection day. My body gave up 6.9 million stem cells today, that's more than the first effort combined, so now I have a combined total of 14.4 million stem cells for them to play with a get get ready to give back to me at some future date. We don't have the schedule for rest of the trip but expect to get on during the next few days.

I'm sure glad that medically the body has been responding well to all the treatment, because physically I haven't felt very well the last couple of days with nausea, bone ache and overall just kind of rotten feeling, they say a lot of this can be from the fall out from the Neupogen and other growth factors, hopefully they will start going away as I don't take the medicines anymore. I'm still wearing the mask anytime I'm in public and also washing my hands quite often as much of my immune system is gone from the Cytoxan. I've still got the majority of my hair, but it is starting to come out a little at a time, I probably need to get a new haircut that will work with the challenges.

As always, Patty has been great in taking care of me and still dealing with everything she's got going in her life, I really don't know what I would do without her.

We had some questions about donating blood in my name to help me when it is needed. We checked with the hospital and they stopped doing that program some time ago. So the only thing I can tell you is to go ahead and dontate and just think of the good you can do for what ever family gets the blood products you donate.

We have meetings tomorrow with staff from the BMT Clinic to go over the in patient protocols and procedures, we'll let you know what comes from those meetings.

Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers in our behalf, they are working, and so in the words of the dunkin donuts guy "I made the donuts" Now we get to see how they turn out.

3/4/2011 Heading for the Weekend

It's Friday and not much is new, we picked Amanda up at the airport around noon. We are very happy she has come up to see us this weekend before Ryan and her jet off to the Big Apple and City of Brotherly Love next week for a spring break vacation with some friends.

My numbers are starting to rebound as they said they would, I think that is good. I only had to have the one transfusion and I believe that's a good thing because the way they talked, I think they were suspecting I would have to have more than the one I wrote about.

A few years ago there was a commercial for dunkin donuts, it was a guy that would get up and say "I'm going to make the donuts" then he would come back through the door exhausted and say "I made the donuts". This repeated several times until at one time he meets himself at the door as he is both coming and going to and from the donuts. At times, this is how Patty and I feel, we're up at 7:00 to get to the hospital for 8:00 am shots and have to be back at the hospital for 8:00 pm shots, I know that's 12 hours apart but with getting my naps in and getting a nights sleep in between, it seems like that's about all we do.

I'm not complaining, just a little bored, but with my numbers starting to rebound there is a good chance we'll be beginning the collection process early next week and that's a good thing that brings us closer to the in patient and transplant process which have their own challenges, but are steps in the right direction.

We're looking forward to a good weekend with Amanda and will put her back on a plane on Sunday to send her home to Ryan. Josh traveled back to Arizona today to get ready for school to start next week. Thanks again to all of you for your good thoughts and prayers, I know they help us in our process.

3/1/2011 How about a Transfusion today

We got up this morning and went to the BMT Clinic as we have done for the past few days, they took my vitals and ran labs on my blood. A while later the nurse came in and told us that the red blood cell number was very low, it had fallen below 24.0, I don't really understand it, but at that point they said we needed a transfusion to get the red blood cells above the number to help my body. At this time the white blood cells and platelets numbers are low but were still high enough not to require any transfusions for their benefit.

Patty stayed with me to get me settled in the transfusion room and they got the first unit of blood hung and going into me. Then she came back to the condo to talk with the boys who had been staying with us all of this weekend so they could get on the road and get back to Vegas during the daylight.

The transfusions went pretty well, the first bag went in with no problems and when it finished the nurse hung the second unit and it too did it's job. So now we will be looking to see how the other numbers are holding up and if they are doing what the doctors think they will. I anticipate we will need further transfusions before the collection process begins this weekend or the first of next week.

I really feel pretty good today, we both came home and took a nap this afternoon to rest our bodies and be ready for our return trip to the hospital at 8:00 tonight to get more Neupogen and the other growth factor shots that should be starting the springboard effect to help with my collections.

It's been a very pretty day in Salt Lake today, warmer than we have be accustomed to, we opened a window and enjoyed the cool air coming into the condo this afternoon. We enjoyed having the boys visit, hopefully they enjoyed their time up here. We will write again soon and hope everyone out there is doing well.