June 10 – Hello again!

Tim has been feeling good despite his blood counts dropping following chemo. He did have to have platelets yesterday, but that is all he has had to have (so far) this time around. We are praising God that things have been going much smoother this time.

Tim had an appointment in Iowa City today with the transplant doctor. She gave us a very brief rundown of how things would go should Tim need a transplant. She was not really interested in going too deep as she feels it is still premature to talk about a transplant. Once the results are back from Tim’s next bone marrow biopsy, which is currently scheduled for Monday, June 22nd, we will have more information on the next steps. Seems like we keep saying ‘After this next test, we will have more information’, but that does seem to be the way this goes!

We did find out that, based on the testing they have done so far, there are 2 donor matches that are 10/10 and 12 donor matches that are 9/10. She thinks Tim would be a good candidate for a transplant based on age and overall health. Obviously, if a transplant is the direction we need to go, there would be lots more testing to make sure she is correct.

The rest of this week and next are his rebuilding weeks and he will just have lab work. He pretty much goes 3 times a week for those. He is scheduled to start the next round of chemo on Tuesday, June 23rd. If we continue with just the chemo, he would have 2 more months of these rounds. If, the results of the BMB indicate he would be better off with a transplant, that will likely start pretty quickly after this next round of chemo.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

For Tim to stay healthy while his immune system is currently significantly compromised. He has done well so far and we are working to keep it that way.

Prayers that he won’t need the transplant. While that may be the way we need to go, we are praying that the chemo does what they are hoping it will do and he won’t need a transplant.

PRAISES:

That Tim had insurance when this happened! The first hospital stay (basically a month) was a rather LARGE amount of money.

We want to thank you again for all the prayers, cards, words of encouragement, and gifts that we have received. While we may not be able to respond to them all, they are all VERY valued and VERY appreciated!!