make glemonade

The last chemo was fine and dandy. We have had so much going on lately, so let's just have a couple weeks in review. Still flushing lines at home, Eric still isn't feeling great, but actually seems to be better than last time. I don't know what was the deal with that chemo #5 but it rocked him. It is hard to believe that the chemo part is already over. How can something go so fast and so slow at the same time?! Eric giving his biohazardous waste can some lovin'. With our good friends, Rosie and Josh. This is Eric getting in the shower (phwit phwew!). A helpful nurse had us switch from plastic wrap to ziploc sandwich bags with duct tape. I got tie dye to spice things up a little bit. John gets Visitor of the Week for last week (Feb. 7-13) because he came over and played board games with Eric all day. They set up Risk, Monopoly, and Ticket to Ride and set a timer every 30 minutes, rotating from game to game. I think they played for ten hours or so (Risk twice). It was on...

Just so you all know, the scan came back with very positive results. Our doctor said it is right where she expected it to be and that it bodes well for the transplant. Wheeeeeeeee! We are gearing up for the bone marrow transplant (hereafter referred to as BMT). It still isn't scheduled which is really pushing my patience. I like to have a plan of action and there just isn't one yet. I imagine it will go something like this: last chemo, 1 week recovery, 1 week shots, next week check in for BMT, Eric there for 3 weeks, I go up on weekends and stay at home weekdays for school. We're looking forward to chemo next week. Mostly because I love the Bistro at Huntsman Center (I highly recommend the roast beef and pepper jack panini)... oh yeah! And it's Eric's last chemotherapy session! No but really, let's look at the things we love about Huntsman: 1. the Bistro 2. the Infusion nurses- they are so much fun and they think we are hilarious, so of course we love them back!...

My last post was premature. We spent the rest of that night at the ER in the University of Utah Hospital because he was still bleeding out of his chest. It finally ebbed around 5 o'clock in the morning, but in typical hospital fashion we were not released until 11a.m.. They didn't clean it up because we had to head up to Huntsman to get it flushed and rebandaged anyway. * small sidenote * he actually got a central line placed, not a port . Apparently there is a difference and I think I've called it a port to a few people and possible on a previous post . ...now carry on... So we trekked up to Huntsman where they were not happy to see us. But they cleaned him up and stopped the bleeding that started again when they replaced the gauze and it hasn't bled since. We got home around 2 o'clock yesterday and I hauled over to campus to try to make it to my last class. Eric was exhausted , but apparently he could muster just enough energy to pay a visit to Camp Cougar and...

About twenty minutes after I finished the blog we made a little trip to the ER because Eric's wound was bleeding excessively. Lucky for us it was the shortest trip I've ever made to the ER (which was about two hours haha). The blood had kind of clotted around the port, so it was this weird jelly goo blood when they cleaned it up. But all is well that ends well, we hope. We are home with semi-clean bandages and hoping they will last us through the night. You can see pretty well in the picture how full the bandage was when we got there, and it was dripping out the bottom quite a bit. He just loves making us sweat a little, doesn't he folks? Oh! We also learned a valuable lesson tonight from another patient: when you are teaching Boy Scouts about pocket knives, don't show them what not to do... you may end up in the ER with a severely sliced finger.

On Wednesday last week, Eric went up to Salt Lake for his bone marrow transplant consult. I was unable to attend due to my class schedule, so we are both anxious to get up there again and be able to ask questions. But here are some brief details and updates regarding the bone marrow transplant: The transplant will take place in March as expected, probaby the second week, though it is still not scheduled. This means we will miss going to the Mountain West Conference Tournament in Vegas and are very sad about it. However, we are very grateful for the huge opportunity this transplant is and do not even want to make that sound like even a shadow of a complaint. Plus, that inspired us to go to Vegas this weekend with a few of our good friends! Details coming shortly... So Eric will be back and forth to SLC quite a bit in these next couple weeks. Four times this week: one to put in this line, like a port that will prevent him from having to be poked with needles anymore, two to get the dress...

Man, all those times I used to make fun of the kids that wore pants that were too short for them. Serves me right, doesn't it? Eric left town for Vancouver this weekend, and I awoke early Friday morning to take my sister, Lisa, to the airport. I was starting to become coherent when my dear brother-in-law pounded on my bedroom door, almost throwing me into cardiac arrest. I opened the door already quite moody, and stepped into a river. Most of our apartment was sopping and the flow continued from the kitchen. Boo. It was the dishwasher. Yeah. Remember that one time we just got a new dishwasher installed?! Apparently some hose or other dishwasher rhetoric exposed our apartment to the harshness of a water world (and, no Coloradans, I'm not talking about the Water World where the Fun Shines). I had to take Lisa to the airport still, Jeff thankfully stopped the waterflow, and we have been living with 7 obnoxious fans in our apartment ever since. It also leaked into the two apartment...