Its been kinda quiet around here.

The last couple of weeks have been pretty quiet and that's a good thing. Valerie has had some good days and bad days. On good days she is up doing things around the house, going on walks or park trips with the kids, and even goes out shopping. On bad days, she pretty much waits for the good days. As of right the now, biggest part of her treatment, is managing her blood. Twice a week she goes to Mayo to get her blood counts checked and if her white blood count and neutrophils come back low, She needs to take Neupogen. This is the magic juice that keeps her from becoming neutropenic. 

Valerie has a love/dislike relationship with this stuff. In a way it is liquid gold because it prevents her from the neutropenic state. Chemo kills cancer cells, but unfortunately it also kills other cells in your body. It messes up your digestive system and destroys your immune system. After chemo, the body becomes very vulnerable to infections. Even an infected hangnail can land someone in the hospital for a few days. Valerie's last hospital stay was because of she had an infection in a neutropenic state. 

So where does the love come in? I believe that this drug and another called Neulasta is instrumental in increasing the survival rates for cancer patients in the last decade. We love this because it helps her survive her chemo treatments by keeping her blood counts elevated. 

The downside to this drug is that it causes severe bone pain. Stem cells are created in the bone marrow and in Val's case that means the pelvis area. Over the last few days, Valerie has been losing a lot of sleep because of the bone pain. Her body is hard at work creating stem cells and she feels every single one of them manifesting right there in her hips. This must be a very strange feeling. It also gives her headaches. 

So whats next? On Thursday she gets her Rituxan infusion and this coming Monday she restarts her R-ESHAP regimen. She will be doing 5 straight days of chemotherapy and hopefully she be able to recover from it like she did her last infusions. Aside from the pain, discomfort, and lost sleep from the Neupogen shots, she recovered nicely but Round 2 looms. 

Hopefully things will get exciting soon. Two weeks after her next treatment, she'll get a PET scan and then Dr. Reeder will decide if she gets to move on to the stem cell transplant. THAT is what we are praying for so please send prayers and good vibes Val's way. 

Once again thank you so much for the support and donations. We are so close to meeting our online campaign goal. This is going to make it possible to pay for time off of work during treatments and stem-cell transplant, co-payments, gas, food, home related bills and small medical related bills that seem to be popping up by the minute. If you choose and would be so kind, please continue to share this site on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Pinterest, email, or any other network you might be a part of. Thanks again.