Bad Bad Tisha

Alright, I admit it. I've been seriously lax in my 'blogging'. Life has been hectic to say the least. As per my last post I did have my stem cells collected. Turned out that I am pretty good at producing them and they collected all they needed and more in one fell swoop. I actually broke the record for the most stem cells collected in one day. Hey, gotta take your props where you can.

I've gone through some more chemo since the last post as well. I had a protocol they call DICEP which was some heavy duty stuff. They actually wipe you out enough with it that they have to do what they call a rescue and give you just a few of your stem cells back to help you recover. That protocol was four days in the hospital for administration and then another five days when I got really sick afterwards and had less than 0.1 white cells. I ended up needing a number of transfusions of both whole blood and platelets to help me through the recovery process. All in all it was rough, harder then I had anticipated.

So we've gotten through those hurdles and this week brings 'tests'. My last PET scan showed that I still had some activity going on in both of my legs so that's why we went with that heavy duty chemo. I am now scheduled to have another PET scan tomorrow evening. I go see my Doc on Thursday morning and get the results and the plan. If there is still activity I go see a new Doc and see about radiation. If there is no activity its on to the autologus stem cell transplant. So this is decision week and stress levels are high. Keep your fingers crossed for me please.

On a more upbeat note... we bought a new pop-up camper! One of our favorite things to do is camp. Hannah loves the freedom of riding her bike all weekend and meeting new kids. We love to watch and to sit in front of the fire at night. My family is all into camping and when the timing is right we all go and have a blast. I'm not sure I will get to one of the big family trips this summer but I'm not giving up hope on it! We tried the camper out this past weekend and we love it. The weekend proved to be less the cooperative and rained on us but we still managed to have fun.

Clementine got to experience camping for the first time and proved herself as a first class camping dog. She didn't bark or misbehave. She hung out in the camper while we went to play Bocce and spent her time spying on the neighbors instead of being a puppy and chewing something up. And she slept as soundly as ever while her Mom's laid there awake listening to the neighbors dogs whining all morning long. All in all, we couldn't be more proud!

So that is that, the update. Life is moving right along! Hannah is finishing up with school this week. We haven't planned any summer camp in hopes that I will be around most of the summer and we can hang out. Our pool is open and ready to go. My sister is off for the summer and is willing to help out when needed which is a huge relief to us. Anita is working as hard as ever now that she's a partner. She somehow manages to keep us all together, its super powers I think.

I promise to try and get myself off the bad dog list and post more often. Thank you to all who offer their help, time and support. We truly are blessed to have family and friends as wonderful as you all!