Today was spent tying up as many loose ends as possible. We were mowing, cleaning, packing, and many other things trying to get ready to leave for Iowa City tomorrow morning. We plan to have a final lunch date, get Cassie settled into Hope Lodge, then get Tim to the hospital for his afternoon appointment to have the PICC line put back in. From there he will be admitted to the hospital and chemo will begin.
There will be 5 days of fairly rough chemo. We are a bit nervous about how the chemo will affect Tim. The induction round was pretty bad and Tim is pretty nervous that it will be that bad again.
After the 5 days, he will have a day of rest and then will get the transplant on September 30th. For him, the transplant will be very similar to getting a blood transfusion. He will be in the hospital for 4-6 weeks. Once he is released from the hospital we are unsure if he will need to remain in Iowa City to be close to the hospital or if we will come home and have to travel back at least weekly for tests.
The first 100 days following transplant will be very tough as he will not be allowed to do much. His trips to the hospital/clinic for tests will be the highlight of his weeks.
PRAYER REQUESTS:
Please pray that Tim will be able to handle the side effects of chemo as well as possible. He is feeling much better and has been healthier than during the induction round of chemo.
Another issue from the transplant is something called Graft vs Host Disease (GVHD). This is very much like rejection of any organ transplant. Tim will be on an anti-rejection medicine but they will slowly wean him from it as they need his body to allow the donor marrow to “take”.
Please pray for Tim’s mental health also. He is a very active person and this will put him down for a good 4-6 months or longer. There are many things he normally does that he will not be allowed to do. It will be very tough on him to not be as active as he normally is.
PRAISES:
We were able to spend this past weekend with our whole family camping and celebrating our youngest granddaughter’s first birthday. We had much better weather than we thought we might. The kids even surprised Tim by having shirts made. They found a book called “Bampa’s Bag”. That is what the grandkids call him and the book is about a couple little girls putting together a bag of activities and encouragement for their Bampa who is having cancer treatments. The book was written by a woman in West Des Moines and fits incredibly well with our situation. It was a very emotional celebration!
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