Days 3-10...

The next few days (days 3-5) were spent watching March Madness. That was pretty much all Eric did those days. Davy and Jeff came up for the first BYU game and they caused quite a stir. The nurses, etc. all loved the rowdy room! We are so proud of BYU for making it out of the first round! They had a really good season and we love them. That whole last week Eric got chemo twice a day, once in the morning and once at night... about 5 hourse total per day. It didn't make him feel sick much, but the first day was the worst. Lisa, Eric's sister came up and hung out a little too, but Eric fell asleep after one round of Yahtzee!

Sunday (day 6) we thought was going to be a day of rest; they told us he wouldn't have any chemo or anything but they were wrong. He did have one chemo that day that was short. We turned the tv off on Sunday and Eric left his room for the first time. Walking around the hall is very anti-climactic because it is about 4 feet long. He rides the exercise bike in his room and discovered my ipod on Sunday. This makes walking and biking much better so he has done it ever since!

Monday was transplant day. We will refer to this as Eric's new birthday from now on. The transplant was only like 30min. because Eric had only two bags worth of stem cells. People collect the same amount of cells, but sometimes it takes more bags. For example, I asked and they said a guy last week getting the same transplant had 23 bags to be returned to his body! Eric collected so well, he only had 2 bags to total the same amount of cells. The transplant was really quick and painless!


These are from transplants day, March 22. No immune system, no anything. This was a good day. We are so happy that this is all happening and just want it to work! We got the results back from his spinal tap and he doesn't have any cancer in his bone marrow anymore. I think this is a good sign of things to come. That was before his transplant, and the hope is that anything left anywhere else will be gone after all of this.

Days 8-10 have been okay but he is starting to get sick. His blood counts are dropping as they are supposed to, but it is strange to watch the numbers decrease. He hasn't needed any transfusions yet, but will if his platelets and hemoglobin get really low. The highlight of day 8 was when our friends Brad and Malia came to visit. It was nice to have new faces to talk to since we don't get out much. Eric felt actually really good that day, just tired.

I think I told him to look sick in this one, so don't worry. Okay do worry, because he is sick.

This is from our big adventure day 9. They decided to let Eric out for 4 hours so he could feel outside before his counts drop all the way to nothing. Then they said just be back by 9 o'clock so we got to be out for like 7 hours. But I should say "big adventure" because we drove home and this is what he did haha! He slept on the couch for two hours and tried to eat but was so tired he couldn't. He got up to go to the bathroom then slept another two hours in our bed before we had to drive back! I think it was still worth it just to have a little break and to get fresh air. He didn't feel very good and right when we got in the room he started throwing up. He did quite a few times, but felt way better afterwards.

Day 10 has been slow, that is today. Eric slept most of today except when our kind Branch President came to visit. Eric showered and walked for about 10 minutes but that took all of his energy. Everything is going as it is supposed to and Eric isn't even hooked up to an i.v. right now. He'll probably have to get hooked up in the next few days again.

We are staying very busy and are grateful for all of your prayers, thoughts, and texts/calls.