4/18/2011 Got my Release - Leaving Salt Lake City

We met with Dr. Petersen today and had what they call my exit interview which means we'll be leaving Salt Lake this Thursday so we can make an appointment with Dr. Te this Friday morning.

We talked about my treatment to date and where we go from here, Dr. Petersen said we'd be evaluated again at around Day 50 (we're now on day 25) to see the % effectivness of the transplant we just went through to see how everything is going. We are going to be able to have all the labs done in St. George and then Dr. Petersen, his team and Dr. Te will evaluate what they mean and where we go from here.

I think I've gotten very good treatment from the BMT team here in Salt Lake at the LDS Hospital program and would recommend them to anyone looking for a treatment location.

The apartment we rented up here worked out very well, it is a one bedroom condo unit in the Gateway Complex just west of downtown Salt Lake. The only drawback is the proximity to the train tracks that move a lot of the freight and all the commuters, you learn to ignore them, but occcaisionally when you wake up during the night hours they can be a bit distracting getting back to sleep. It's been a different experience living in a medium rise (12 story) building, we're on the 10th floor and our parkinig spot is in the first level of the basement, so moving everything you need on a daily basis through an elevator is a whole lot different than going through the laundry room and the garage at home. But, that being said, if and when we have to come up again for at least 60 days at a time, we'll probably try to see if he has any openings available in this complex because of how convenient it is to everything in Salt Lake.

We're looking forward to being home, but that also means that my postings will probably not be as frequent as they have been because of the reduced amount of activity we'll be having, but we'll see what happens. Again I would like to thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers in our behalf. We will write again soon.

4/15/2011 Got my Central Line taken out - Good Day

Today was a good day, I'm a little sore, but that's a good thing considering. I had an appointment this morning and thanks to the water Nazi's Patty and Amanda I drank plenty of water so my kidneys worked very well and my blood tests let them take out my Central Line.

The sore part is that I didn't know it before today, but about one half inch under my skin the Central Line has a raised cup around it that keeps it from pulling out and it's the only part of the line that forms any kind of a binding with your skin, so they have to dig around the line and open up your skin to get it loose enough to pull the rest of the line out. Once the cup is free the rest of the line slides right out and I got to see the working end of the Central Line, that was pretty interesting.

It didn't hurt at all to get the line taken out since they gave me plenty of local anesthesia on the surface where the line entered and since it was local, I was awake and alert and was able to see the whole process, which at first I wasn't sure I wanted to see, but as it turned out, it was pretty cool to see and experience, but a couple hours later as the local started to wear off, it became a little sore to the feel and the touch (it is under a bandage) as the doctor had to dig around and cut things apart. I will get to see it tomorrow evening when I change the bandage on it.

The other thing that made it a good day is we set up an appointment for next Monday with Dr. Petersen to talk about letting me head for home. I hope everything goes well with that appointment, we'll have to stop in St. George for a couple of days since they will release me back to Dr. Te in St. George and I'll have an appointment with him before I'm totally released, so it could be the first of the following week or more before we make it back to Vegas.

I'll have to come back to Salt Lake in a few weeks to see how my stem cells are responding and how they are battling the MM (bad stuff), hopefully things are working well.

I'll post again next week after we know more about what is actually going on with us. Hope everyone is doing well and we'll talk to all of you soon. We'll be putting Amanda on the plane tomorrow, it was nice she could come up. We got some other good news last night after seeing Daniel's post on facebook, that was very good news for Daniel, Kim and the family.

4/12/2011 To the Clinic for a Check-up

We had an appointment at the BMT Clinic today to see how I'm doing. It went pretty well and for a while we thought I might be getting the central line out today which would have put us that much closer to being ready to head home, I mean actually home as in Vegas, then reality struck and they brought in today's blood results and turns out that my kidneys weren't very happy today since I haven't been drinking enough fluids to make them happy.

So Dr. Asch came in and they hung a liter of fluids on me to make my kidneys happy and then she talked about what we have to do to make my kidneys happy enough that they feel food about taking out my central line and getting closer to being released from the the Clinic. So I promised I would drink a lot more water and other qualifying liquids and we made a new appointment for this Friday to see how I have done in the liquid department. I hope I do well because it will be nice to get ready to head for home. It won't be easy because I still have nausea and with it comes some bad taste of quite a few of the foods and liquids I try to eat and drink, but I plan on doing it because the reward is way worth it.

On another note, Amanda is flying up thursday night to spend a couple of days with us, it's been a couple of weeks since we've seen her and it will be nice to have her around for a few days, Patty will really enjoy the time with her being here.

We are hoping for a good Friday checkup and some good news that will come from that, until then, we hope everyone is doing well and having a great spring. Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers on our behalf.

4/8/2011 Out of the Hospital - hopefully for good

Thank you to my dear wife Patty during the past couple of weeks giving you updates as to our status while I was in the hospital getting the chemo treatment and everything else that was going on. They let me out today so I figured I would do my own post today.

Those of you on facebook already heard about my release thanks to the posts by Amanda, she always has fresh news when it's available and gets out to more than those that follow my little blog, so I'm gratefull for her efforts.

Thank you to all of you that have prayed and had good thoughts for us during the past few weeks. It was an interesting experience being an in patient for so long, I have never been locked up for such a long time before and I sort of lost tract of times and dates during this period and I am looking forward to rejoinging the world in real time that will match what it going on with the rest of the world.

We are not completely free yet, we still have to stay in Salt Lake for at least a couple of weeks to make sure all the numbers stay good and will keep us running in the right direction. The numbers are doing very well, all of them are doing what they are suppose to be doing to keep me going in the right direction. I am very greatful to the doctors and staff at the LDS BMT Clinic and in patient nurses and aides that took great care of me over the last few weeks.

We'll keep you posted as things progress towards us being released to go back to Vegas and let you know how things are going. Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers and we'll post again soon.

April 5 The fruit basket is the only fruit in the room I think?

Hello everyone it is Patty, hopefully Bart will feel up to writing the next post. It has been a great day when we got Bart's numbers this morning his nuetrafills had gone from 200 yesterday to 1100 today, translation his stem cells are starting to do their work. They say that this means the engrafting process is happening. He also hasn't needed any blood products, which also means his body is doing what it is suppose to do,, there has to be a joke somewhere in that sentence.
Can I just say YEA! If he can start eating a little more and have a little less nausea, we can get out of here.
Some of the previous problem from the last post has been resolved, and we really did get a fruit basket delivered, so that is why the fruit reference. Bart still has some vivid dreams, but let us just say he's not traveling quite so far. I thiink he is kind of upset at me for that.
We both try to stay in good spirits. We long for the next step and to go back to our home, although it really stinks we've been up here for the crummy weather, and when we go home we'll be into the 100's. But life is good even if your melting.
I know I say this every time, but I just can't help myself, thank you all for your well wishes and you love.
Love, Bart & Patty

April 3 "That is why I do it"

It's me again just trying to keep you up to speed. All through our married life Bart has been a blood donor, I admired his dedication also the free stuff he got, some of it wasn't bad. The last few years they convinced him to give platelets, which took more time and it caused some discomfort because he had to lay out with his arm perfectly still for a considerable amount of time. When he would come home being sore I of course would say "just go back to the regular giving you don't need to do platelets". Well of course this week Bart's platelets took a dive and he was the recipient of someone else's generosity. So again he can turn to me and say " that is why I do it". Things have progressed through the week his numbers have actually improved. The difficulty we are experiencing is possibly being over medicated for his nausea.
It is a fine line to medicate but not overdue it. Basically Bart is traveling on some really good trips without leaving his room. I've heard a lot of interesting conversations and he is solving of all sorts of problems. I'm going to meet with Doctors tomorrow to see what we can come up with.
I'm sure it sounds fun to be in another place, any place other than here, but I also don't think it is healthy. He also doesn't want to eat so that has posed challenge for me to try to present something he will try. I do know he will eat an ice cream drum stick, but somehow I don't think steady diet of them will help anyone.
We keep in good spirits. My good friend Donna from Las Vegas came up and spent a few days with me. Bart got a kick out of her visits as well.
We are grateful for all the calls and prayers from everyone. We hope to be home soon.
Love,
Bart and Patty