Still Being Smelted

And Kendall is successfully admitted! This time around Kendall's room is decorated with quite a few more laminated photos, signs, and hand-drawn pictures than his previous hospitalizations (including one our youngest drew him of "a magical blue dog named DOGter Strange with healing powers that actually look different colored flowers and [she doesn't] know how they will help Dad but they will"). I was able to visit…

Things are still moving forward for Kendall to be hospitalized tomorrow for his bone marrow transplant prep, including those six sessions of total body radiation (which have required a surprising amount of procedures beforehand to get ready for). If everything goes according to plan, Kendall's actual transplant should happen next Thursday. Kendall had a PET scan this week and we just got the results today. I (thankfully)…

Here are the medical highlights from the week: -On Monday Kendall had another IVIG treatment. This time he received it all at once, rather than being spread out over four days. Unfortunately, he did have a reaction to it this time. Nothing that ended up being too serious, but it did get awfully busy in that room for a while. It made for a long day as…

Not everyone reading these posts knows me very well, so what you might not already realize is that I. like. order. Like a lot. Organization. Schedules. Predictability. Above all else, control (I'm a little embarrassed to admit that). Seriously, back to school has always been my favorite time of year because I get to put new systems and schedules in place (labeled and organized bins make me…

Do you pick a word to focus on or have as a sort of theme for each new year? I was first introduced to this idea a few years ago, and I've enjoyed the annual process of thoughtfully choosing what I want to focus on for the next year. This year, however, I have really struggled with finding a word that felt right. Lofty, noble words (like…

Still no real answers. No donor yet. I've had several people ask me if they could be tested to be a potential donor. My answer is always that definitely, please sign up to be a bone marrow donor! We're certainly not the only ones looking to have that life-saving procedure done and who is unable to find a related full match. And being a donor is really…

Didn't I tell you that Kendall is starting to grow some facial hair now that he's off those neurotoxic chemo drugs? The funny thing is, he wasn't really able to grow a good mustache before all of this cancer business.... His eyebrows and eyelashes have also grown back, which we're taking as a healthy sign. Kendall's walking is better and he is able to mostly get around…

I am woefully behind on posting on here, so bear with me as I try to bring everyone up to speed. First off, aren't those paper cranes beautiful? Our son's fifth grade class (or at least the class he attended before he had to switch to eSchool) has been making 1,000 paper cranes since September, and Darren's teacher delivered them to us last week. I can only…

Monday was physically a very tiring day. After getting up at 4:20 in the morning so we could get to Kendall's very early cervical MRI, we ended up being gone at the hospital for 15 hours. Long hospital days are hard, not just for Kendall and me but for our kids. Having Grandma Jeanne home with the kids (and our other Grandma stopping by to help with…

We did get the results of the donor matching tests for Kendall's siblings. We were told that there is a 1:4 chance that a full-blood sibling will be a match. Kendall had five siblings who were tested. None of them were complete matches, but three of his siblings were half matches (5/10 markers matching). They then went to the Universal Donor Bank, where they said Kendall had…