Monday, June 7, 2010

Update # 140

42 months 

Good Evening, 

Our weather has had some days of near 90 but today was wonderful in the 70's.  Today was also wonderful with Jeff's appointments in St. Louis.

Jeff started the day at 8:00 AM with having his port removed.  He was very lucky to have it for over 3 years with no problems at all.  Hopefully, this will be the last "scar" he will get.  There are 4 stitches on his right chest covered by derma "glue".  Jeff has only taken 2 ibuprofen all day so he is doing well.  He just needs to remember he cannot not lift things yet. 

At 9:30, Jeff had the rescheduled bone density scan since the machine was not working last December.  Results are in the normal range and look even a tiny bit better than the last one done in Dec. 2007. 

Lab work at 10:30 now had to be taken out of a vein since Jeff was port free.  Counts are fairly close to last time.  Jeff's hemoglobin has been steadily rising the last few blood draws.  They feel the blood is too thick so Jeff needs to have a pint of blood taken out of his body.  This probably has nothing to do with any medical conditions but is most likely hereditary.  Ken has high Hgb and has given blood regularly for years to keep his hgb lower.  Jeff can have this pint taken off when he returns to Waterloo at Dr. Masri's office. 

Jeff's blood pressure has also been increasing the last couple of check-ups.  Dr. DiPersio said in Dec. that if it was about the same then Jeff would need to begin high blood pressure medicine.  The numbers were almost exactly the same so Jeff will begin taking a pill for that. 

We were notified in March that Dr. DiPersio would not be in town for Jeff's appointment today.  Rather than change the port removal and bone density scan (plus change days off at work), Jeff saw Stephanie, the nurse practitioner.  Overall, she seemed pleased with Jeff's health.  She noticed Jeff has not had his cholesterol checked in a while so he will also have that done back home. 

After all of Jeff's appointments, we headed south to Perryville to visit with Ken's mom.  Jeff and Meridith did not have time in Dec. to go and see her.  Grandma was surprised to see them walk in and enjoyed visiting with them.  

Yesterday we drove down to StL to have supper with our friends, the Wolbrechts, who were in town from Seattle.  We had a great time catching up on life.  And it worked well for us then to stay the night at the hotel connected to Barnes for Jeff's early day. 

Jeff and Meridith drove straight to St. Louis on Friday where Ken and I met them at Busch Stadium for a ball game.  Jeff had a particularly special seat for the evening -- in the production truck with the television director.  Last April, we heard a radio interview with the man who directs the Cardinals games on television.  He had just written a book about his experiences.  Of course, we wanted to get a copy of this book.  Well, one email led to another and Jeff was offered this golden opportunity to meet Tom in person and sit with him during a live broadcast.  Meridith, Ken and I sat in "regular" seats but still enjoyed ourselves especially with a fireworks show at the end of the game.  Oh yes, the Cards won! 

So the last few days have been busy.  And the next few days will also be great since Jeff and Meridith are not returning to Iowa until Friday.  It's been years since they've had time to be down here that long.  Part of that unfortunately means that Meridith still has not found a job after her lay-off the beginning of April.  She is keeping busy with job hunting and with helping out at their church as temporary part-time secretary.  

I ask that you keep Jeff's donor, Matt, and his troops in your prayers.  Just a few weeks ago, two of Matt's men were killed in action in Afghanistan.  It was a tough time for Matt, his men, and of course the families of these 2 soldiers. 

We always keep all of you in our prayers.  Several of you are facing your own tough times but we know the power of prayer does help.  God continues to give us comfort and strength. 

Jeff's next appointment is the end of July in Iowa City for his eyes.  I'll update after that.  His StL six-month appointment is scheduled for Dec. 13th. 

Take care of yourselves and have a great summer. 

love,

Marcia