Great Week

Well, it has been a good week for our Mom. She had the whole week blocked out for stem cell harvesting, and they managed to collect the entire five million stem cells on the first day! Hooray!
Monday was a day of being connected to a machine for collection and she was not able to even get up to go to the bathroom! Hence, no liquids for her those 7 hours.
On Tuesday, she and my Dad jumped in the car and went to Mammoth. She is so happy to be there--no skiing for her, but the weather is perfect and being in the mountains is a nice change.
Anyway, she is feeling like things are going her way. Christmas should be great, then on to chemo #6 on the 28th. Hmmm...not so sure about New Year's. HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!!

The waiting game continues...

I found this picture on my computer today from Christmas '06 and thought I'd include it. Ashley, my mom, and I look very different now but my dad looks exactly the same-silver flowing locks and all. We're missing Damian, of course, because he was a pretty new part of Ashley's life. Some things change, but my dad's hair isn't one of them ;)

My poor mom has STILL been waiting to get the final schedule for her transplant, but things continue to be up in the air. She just received an email from UCSD. I'm going to include part of it because let's face it, I'm just as confused as you all.

"I received a new e-mail from Dr. Castro. He DOES want you to have cycle 6 of chemo. So we are going to collect your precious stem cells, put them in the freezer, have your bone marrow recover a little, ( Dr. Castro to determine the time line, usually it's 1-2 weeks) and then have your chemo with Dr. Helton, then come back to us for the autologous stem cell transplant."

So there it is in all its vagueness. I'll let you know when we know FOR SURE when all of this is going to be happening. Let's pray for a Christmas miracle and hope she has this all behind her by February!!!! The lady is just desperate to get on with her life.

**I just checked the comments from the previous post. Thank you so much for offering to help. When it all finally starts we will definitely be needing you all! I'll keep you posted!**

Stem Cell Transplant Info

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving! We had a wonderful time at Ashley and Damian's with D's sweet family and the food was really delicious.
I wanted to update everyone on my mom's schedule for the next month, though it still is up in the air a bit. This is what she knows for sure:
December 3rd: Catheter gets put in
December 4th: Chemo at UCSD
Decemeber 14th-18: Stem cell collection at UCSD

This is the part that may change:
December 30: admitted to the hospital where she will get more chemo, then her stem cells will be put back
January 20: released from the hospital

For the next month, she's going to need round-the-clock care. Nancy Logan will be putting together a calendar of volunteers to come over to give my dad a much deserved break!
She is going to have crazy diet restrictions so I will post those later. Thanks in advance :)