Good news again!

Kurt went to the hospital today to get his liver checked, the levels had come down enough that they are going to start the transplant (YEA)! So tomorrow he has to go and get a shot to protect his mouth from getting sores in it during the radiation, then on Sunday another shot for the same, and Monday a shot and they will do a minor procedure to put in a central line into his chest and take out the pic line in his arm. Then on Tuesday back to his second home for radiation for 6 days, and chemo for 2. He will rest on August 12th, and then on August 13th, he will get the marrow from a 21 year old from Europe. That's all we know about him, but he is as perfect as a match that they could of found, except for his age. Then the hard part, we will be apart for about 4-6 weeks, and then he will have to be watched at home for another month. We're getting very apprehensive about this, but very excited to get on with our lives and hope that they will be as normal as possible.
Thanks again for everything. We really appreciate the kindness shown by everyone. We know that Heavenly Father has blessed us in so many ways, and that I think he is trying to teach us patience, because we are not very patient people. We have become closer and our testimonies have grown too.
Cindee

This is one crazy ride!

It's has been a long time since I wrote. Kurt got out of the hospital from the
e-coli infection. and his counts started to go back up. He started to get back on his feet again. We took a little getaway to Park City last weekend. He did fairly well, but got tired. It was an interesting weekend, but a too long of a story to tell. We had a good time.
I haven't mentioned that he was going to start the transplant process on July 27th, because of the last time with the other donor, I didn't want to jinx it, but it has been jinxed. Yesterday we went to meet with the doctors and sign the papers, everything sounded great and looked good with Kurt and the donor. So it was a good day. They did tell us that Kurt's liver counts were elevated and they wanted to take some blood and do another check. We went home and felt pretty good about everything. Then today the hospital called and told Kurt to come up if he could, because his liver counts were higher, so they wanted us to talk to a GI doctor. He told us that it could be the medications, so they took more blood again today. He called back this afternoon, and told us they had gone down a tiny bit. So we will go in Saturday and have blood drawn again and wait for the counts to come back, and then they will decide if we start the process this week of postpone for a couple of weeks. This is extremely messing with our minds. We are going to have a family fast this Sunday, so hopefully evetything will go as scheduled and Kurt will be able to start the transplant. I will let you know when we find out a decision. Thanks again for your concern and friendship.
Cindee

Little hospital stay

Sorry it's been awhile since I've written. Kurt came home from the 3rd round of consolidation chemo on June 22nd. That week we started going back and forth to the clinic to get his counts tested and get transfusions of blood and platelets. During this time we try to be very careful as to not let him get around people and get sick. But try as hard as we may, his temperature started going up on Friday the 3rd, and by that night it had gone higher, so I decided to call against Kurt's pleas not to. They said we better come in and have it checked. We got up there around 11:00 pm and they admitted him and started to take blood cultures. They said he would probably be there until Sunday, because it takes that long to grow the cultures. Needless to say, Kurt and I were very upset about staying. Saturday afternoon, we talked to one of the PA's and she said that they had found an infection and they wouldn't know exactly what it was for a couple of days. They told us that he would have to stay in until his counts came up and he could fight the infection better on his own. Now we were both very down, because we had no idea how long that would take. The 4th of July was not too great. Kurt was not feeling too good, and was tired that night, so I went with Kelli and her family to Riverton (and I think with everyone else in Salt Lake City) to see the fireworks. It was fun, but I felt bad that Kurt was in the hospital.
He started slowly getting better, and Wednesday, the 8th, he did get to come home. So it wasn't too bad. Now we go back on Friday to get his counts tested again, and hopefully they are starting to come back up this week and we will be able to do some fun things while he feels good, and hopefully he doesn't get sick soon again. Oh they did find out what the infection was, it was E-coli, and they told us it was good he got in there that soon, becuase with his counts being almost nothing, he would of gotten very sick, very fast. Although he still hasn't thanked me for calling and putting him in the hospital, I think he's grateful that I did, and that he got better so quickly.
Thanks again for all of your thoughts, prayers, cards, and concern.
Kurt & Cindee

Home again home again!

Kurt has completed the 3rd round of consolidation chemo, and came home on Monday of this week. He is doing quite well, but we are a little discouraged. They still have not found another donor, and they will only give him one more consolidation round of chemo. So if they do get a donor soon, he will start the transplant process in mid-July, and if not they will do the 4th and final round of consolidation chemo, and then we will have to talk to the doctors and make some decisions, and we really don't know what our options would be. We are getting a little nervous, because the time seems to be going faster and we cannot find a donor. They said it usually doesn't take this long to find one, but we're thinking that it is summer and everyone probably has plans. So keep praying that they will find one soon.
Other than that, he hasn't lost his hair from the consolidation treatments, and it is growing in pretty good. But if when they do the transplant he will get radiation and chemo, and I'm sure it will fall out again. Now we just go to the hospital and get the counts checked frequently for the next week and a half, and wait for the counts to come back up, and then maybe we can do something fun again.
Thanks again for your concern and support. Hopefully the next time I write it will be something positive about the transplant.

Bone Marrow Registry

If anyone is interested in signing up for the registry, I went on the Bone Marrow Transplant Registry web site yesterday and saw that you can sign up online for free now until June 22, 09, I can't believe they would charge someone to sign up, but on the site it said that it costs $100 for the registry to process each applicant. I just went to ask.com and typed in the question box bone marrow transplant registry. It look me to the web site, and it looks like you have to fill out an application and have them mail a kit to you. All they need is a swipe of the inside of your cheek. Just thought I would let everyone know, since so many have asked about it. Thanks.