September 30, 2001
Update # 8
Good Evening,
"NO ACTIVITY" were the words I read on the written report of the PET scan. Chu confirmed by CT scan pics and PET scan pics that they see no evidence of tumors in Jeff!! Your prayers are working.
Let me back up to last Sat. and fill you in on the week. Jeff was absolutely miserable with the throat sores. The Tylenol with Codeine did not even touch the pain. Jeff was in tears on Sunday and would not even swallow his saliva. I don't think we even got four ounces of liquid down him in 24 hours. If we were not scheduled to be at Costas at 7:00 AM Monday, we would have taken him down to CG on Sunday. They gave him Morphine on Monday 2 times at Costas and that didn't really help the pain. They rate pain from 1 to 5 with 5 being the worst. After the 2 doses of morphine Jeff said he went from a 5 to a 4 1/2!! They even gave us liquid morphine to give him at home Monday night. We mixed it with liquid for him to drink. He drank it, put the glass on the bar and promptly went to the bathroom to throw up. We pray he does not get sores again. They finally started to go away on Tuesday and he started eating a little and drinking some again.
Monday was harvest day and we were there on time and ready. The blood count was a two hour wait. The preliminary count showed things were low and Jeff would be needing another blood transfusion. Probably on Tuesday. The doctor who does the harvesting of stem cells said a little after 10:00 that Jeff's numbers were OK for the harvest. The doctor has some formula for figuring if the person has enough stem cells to harvest. The number he wanted to see was at least 10 and Jeff had a 39. I then asked how many cells he wanted from Jeff. He said he based it on weight and he would like 5 million from Jeff but if things went slow the doctor would accept 2 or 2 1/2 million. Things got started around 10:40 and would probably take between 5 and 6 hours. He shaved Jeff a little in the pubic area to insert a catheter with 2 lumens in the groin. He then put Jeff to sleep for about 5 minutes while he inserted the catheter and put in a couple of stitches to hold it in place. Then they hooked Jeff up to this big machine that circulated his blood through all this tubing and took out the stem cells into a bag. They had to continuous give him Calcium since this would deplete him. His platelet count would also decrease but that was low and he'd be getting a transfusion the next day anyway. A count half way through the day showed maybe they'd harvest around 6 million cells. Jeff laid flat till they finished at 5:15. Dr. Gale unhooked Jeff and removed the catheter. He had to press the area for 20 minutes since Jeff had 2 bags of anticoagulant to prevent clotting during the pheresis. We headed for home a little after 6:00
We returned to Costas at 7:50 on Tuesday for the CT scan, chest x-ray, blood transfusion and tentative PET scan. Jeff's throat was a little better but he could not eat now because of the tests. The CT scan was around 9:00 and the chest x-ray was around 10:00. There was a Rams party at Costas from 10 - 12. Grant Wistrom and Adam Timmerman came and they had pics, games and food. Dr. Gale came in with the final count from the stem cell harvest. He had wanted 5 million and ended up with 10 million! So they are now frozen for future use. They started the 2 pints of blood around 11:00. Found out there were no cancellations in the PET area so we'd have to wait till Friday for the scan. They said Jeff could eat if he wanted. So he ate a little and when he'd had two bites of lunch they came in and said "stop, there's a cancellation for 2:00". So we were able to get the PET scan on Tuesday after all. His blood transfusion finished at 2:05 so he got to the PET area at 2:15. They injected radiation with glucose into a vein. Then waited about 40 minutes for it to circulate. The PET is like a CT but bigger and slower. The scan took almost an hour. We finally left Costas before 5:00.
Jeff was pretty worn out so he spent Wednesday at home sleeping and doing homework. He finally started eating and drinking pretty regular again. He'd lost some weight over the weekend and the last couple of days. Thursday was a regular day with school.
Friday we went down to get all the test results. When you see the chest x-ray, you see what is apparently scar tissue left from the tumor. The CT scan shows nothing in the spleen. The PET scan shows no activity which is what Chu wanted to see. Some cells can still be around so treatment will continue as is. Three more courses of chemo which will take us to the end of November. No upping of meds since Chu got Jeff where he wanted him the last 2 times. Then we will redo all these tests and determine radiation course and stem cell transplantation. We were thrilled and Chu was pleased!!
CBC count was OK for course 4 to begin on Friday. Once Jeff was admitted, they also did an Echocardiogram also as routine for end of 9 weeks. Jeff did get sick once on Friday night and then once again on Saturday afternoon. When chemo was finished on Sat. we came home. Jeff and I returned to 4 North for his chemo for today.
So thank you all so much for your prayers but do not think we are finished. We give thanks for the great strides Jeff has made and continue asking for healing during the next several months.
Love,
Marcia