Pre-admittance tests and working out the logistics for Patty

Today and tomorrow are a couple of very early days for a retired person. The alarm clock said 4:35 this morning and will say about 5:00 tomorrow (Friday) morning. I made the trip alone today up to St. George to get the majority of my tests completed in preparation of going to Salt Lake on Oct. 12th, doing the last checkup and interviews on Oct. 13th and then getting admitted on Oct. 14th to get my direct line put in and start the process of Chemo and the introduction of my stem cells back to me to complete the transplant process. Tomorrow morning (Friday Sept. 26th) Matt is going to drive me up and especially back from Dr. Te's Office as the one remaining test that I need to complete is another Bone Marrow Biopsy procedure that we are having done at Dr. Te's Office at 8:30 am. I am grateful to Matt for getting off to be able to take me up. After the Biopsy tomorrow, we'll find out what all the test results were that I am doing when I check in at the BMT Clinic on the 13th. After finding out the actual dates that we were talking about, Patty, the kids and I all got together for dinner last night (Wednesday) to talk about the logistics of 24/7 coverage for Patty while I am gone to Salt Lake. Then Patty talked with our two primary caregivers today (Cora and Patricia) and it looks like with a huge amount of help and dedication by everyone, we are going to be able to make it work. That's not to say that there won't be some challenges come up from time to time. I'm sure that the basic schedule will work most of the time, but guarantee that it will have to be adjusted as time goes on to accomodate changes and issues that will come up. As the plan stands right now, I think that Amanda is going to drive up with me on the 12th and then we'll fly her home the evening of the 14th. If the inpatient stay goes about what it should, Matt will likely fly up around Halloween weekend to help me get moved to a close hotel/motel that I will call home for another 3-4 weeks or whenever the BMT kicks me loose to go back to Dr. Te. It will probably be close whether I spend my birthday in Salt Lake or not. I hope that things go well enough that me and my hepa filter mask can make the journey back home to be with the family for my birthday and for Thanksgiving the following week. I am not looking forward to the process, but I am looking forward to getting through these procedures and getting back to a better place with better numbers. I hope that everyone is enjoying the start of fall, we here in vegas are looking forward to it cooling down a little bit, but I don't want to wish a lot of cold and storm on people that live in other places and climates. everyone be safe and well, until next time.

Let the pre-admission tests begin

My last post talked about going to see Dr. Te to get the latest blood results. The M-Spike is stuck on 0.4 so Dr. Te called Dr. Petersen with LDS Hospital's Bone Marrow Transplant Clinic (The place and people that took care of me before). They still have one dose of stem cells on ice waiting for me, although I was hoping that I wouldn't have to use them for a few more years, but that's life. Anyway Cindy Nordling my patient coordinator is busy setting up my pre-admittance tests with Dr. Te and Dixie Regional Medical Center to get final approval from my Insurance company to perform the transplant. Cindy as set up the Bone Marrow Biopsy (yes another one) with Dr. Te for Friday Sept. 26th early in the morning so I'll have to get a volunteer to go up with me to drive me back because I will be out of it for all day that day. She is working with DRMC to set up the X-rays, scans, and all other tests for Thursday Sept 25th. I'll probably drive up for the day to get those done and then come back home that afternoon. This means that I will most likely be heading for Salt Lake about 2 weeks after the testing is complete - maybe around Oct. 10-15 to begin my 5 to 8 week visit to Salt Lake this fall. We are working with the kids, the ward and all of our caregivers and medical people to work out the logistics to make sure the Patty has 24/7 coverage here at the house or over to Amanda's house for the duration of me being gone and then for when I come back we'll need more coverage than we currently have for a while until I get my strength and stamina back to that I can take most or all of the responsibilities that I do now. We'll have to see exactly what happens. For the next 2-3+ months we will definitly be looking for quite a bit of help and support to get both of us through this. Again I hope that everyone is safe, happy and well. Until next time.

September 12 Dr. Te Appointment

I went to see Dr. Te today, I got to experience the detour through the Valley of Fire between the Moapa Tribal Plaza and the Logandale Exit on I-15 - both directions. More about that later. The good news on all my tests are that other than being anemic and having almost no white blood cells, the rest of my standard tests are still looking very good, my kidney and liver functions are good, most everything is pretty good and has stabilized. The not great news is that I'm still stuck on 0.4 on the the blasted M-spike. Dr. Te is going to call Dr. Petersen at the LDS Hospital BMT Clinic to decide what they want to advise me, I think I'll probably get contacted by Cindy Nordling fromt he LDS BMT this next week to start making plans for the pre-admittance tests, I think they will probably let me do most of them down at Dixie Regional Medical Center since it is owned by the same IHC company. I talked with Patty and Amanda about it a little tonight and Patty wants me to investigate whether it would be possible to use another medicine to see if we can get the number (M-spike) down below the 0.2 level that Dr. Petersen advised us when we went to SLC in August. I'm not sure if it's even possible, but I told her we would investigate the possibility to see? If the answer is no, then most likely I'll finish this round of Pomalyst on Sunday Oct. 5th and either before that, or shortly after that, I'll get the pre-admittance tests done and within about 2 weeks after that I should be headed for the BMT on the 8th floor at LDS Hospital in SLC. Don't know what that means for our Thanksgiving on Nov. 27th, but where ever I am, I'll probably be wearing a masking watching what I eat as far as un-processed foods, it will be great. I'll try to remember to add a little bit when the decision is made for the schedule for October. We had a great time in Parowan over Labor Day. Patty and I really appreciated all that Bruce and Cara did to prepare for our herd and everyone got along very well. It was good to see everyone, and glad we got to spend some time with Linda before she went back to Alabama. The weather was fantastic and the kids and grandkids had a terrific time spending time together for the weekend. We got to ride the ATV's and eat and eat and eat. Back to the detour. Before I start, I need to recognize the hardships that Bruce had to go through this week to get his deliveries to the Moapa Plant this week. I don't know how many trips he had to make, but commercial vehicles were all suppose to go from Cedar City through Panaca and Alamo and then down US 93, so his drive would have added hours to his normal trip because of the section of I-15 that went out was around the exit that he takes to get off I-15 to make his deliveries. I haven't talked with them today, so I don't know if they figured something faster out later in the week, but the first time he had to make the trip was very long and painful dealing with all the semi trucks and other traffic. I can only imagine just how bad that was. I was able to take the road through the Valley of Fire, it was just about an hour going up this morning from the time I left I-15 and the Moapa Tribal Plaza until getting back on I-15 at the Logandale exit. Which means it cost me about 45 +/- minutes to make the detour. Coming home this afternoon I think it was a little longer because there was a semi (don't know why) leading us through the Valley and there were a lot of times we didn't get to even the 35 MPH speed limit. They opened up the temporary road while I was on the detour - near the end of it, so I guess I could have stayed in St. George for another hour and not had to make the detour, but I would have made it hope about the same time. We hope everyone is well, and having a good September. Until next time.