11 days down....

11 days into the hospital stay.....11 days closer to him coming home! When I posted last week, his counts were still high enough that they said he could go outside for a walk. I thought it would be so nice for him to get outside and feel the sun.....not so much. He has to wear a plastic gown, a thick mask over his nose and mouth and latex gloves when he leaves his room. He was so hot and sweaty in all his gear. It was a pretty hot day, so we didn't stay out there for long. Wednesday night he got pretty sick, so they were giving him nausea medicine left and right trying to make him feel better and comfortable. He was pretty out of it Thrusday to Sunday due to chemo meds and nausea meds on a contiuious basis until Saturday. Sunday was his day of rest only getting fulids to keep him hydrated. Monday they put his stem cells back into him. It was quite the set up. There was a guy from the red cross that manned the container that the stem cells were froze in and the warming tray that he unthawed the cells in, there was a nurse at the iv pole maintaing the speed they were going into Josh to avoid him having a reaction and there was a nurse taking his vitals every 15 mintutes and making sure everything was being recorded into the computer. Josh was smelling and sucking on lemons and I chewed thru a package of gum and ate a couple of strawberry ring pops because the preseratives from the stem cells have a bad taste/smell. I have been told they smell like raw fish (mainly salmon), galic and cream corn. I don't think that it smells any thing like garlic and I apparently don't know what the other two smell like because I could say 'oh ya, thats what it smells like'. I can't exactly say that it smells like anything, it is just a very different, gross smell. Luckily it didn't stay around long. After the stem cell process it had just been maintaince fluids going into him to keep him hydrated since he hasn't been drinkng much. Along with the not drinking he hasn't been eating either. The said the most calories he has ate in 7 days is 800....not good. So they put him on tpn, which is a milky looking iv bag that gives him the vitamins, nutritional suppliments and calories that his body needs to make it though the recovery porcess. It may make his blood sugar level go through the roof so they are keeping a close eye on it and he will get insulin shots if need be. His blood counts are super low, which is the idea behind this whole process, but he is now needing infusions because theya re dipping under the low mark. Yesterday he had to get a bag of platelets, they will check him again later this afternoon to see if he will need some more. So far, so good....I guess. Other than the horrible nausea and not drinking or eating, no major complications and it has gone pretty much like they told us it would. When he's awake, Josh spends his days in his room watching tv and playing on his phone or the ipad. We get out and walk at least once a day. That's about the extent of our fun, pretty boring :/ Once again, thanks so much from the bottom of our hearts to you all for the continuious thoughts and prayers, for the dinners and all the help with our kids. From such a horrile thing comes such greatness and for that we are so blessed!

Overdue Update

Sorry for the delayed update, we've had a lot going on since the last time I posted something! So, on Friday April 28th Josh finished the stem cell collection. His final collection number was 11.5, with 10-15 being the range they wanted him in to have enough for both collections. They had him get a PET scan on May 1st to see how things were going since it had been two months since treatment. Based on those results would depend on when they would admit him into LDS for treatment/stem cell transplant. They found that there was only a little growth in his tumors and nothing more to be concerned about so his admission date was set for the 7th. On May 3rd we had a final meeting with everyone under the sun who worked on the floor he's on. We meet with a social worker, nurse coordinater, doctor, physician's assistant, dietitan and pulmanologist (I feel i'm missing others). All the information and rules they were giving us was so, so, so overwhelming! I quit taking notes in the middle of our second meeting :/ May 7th rolled around and here we are 3 days into the process. On Monday he got 4 hours of fluid before they started his first chemo med. It is so super hard on the kidneys so they wanted him overly hydrated to keep them working. When the kids and I skyped him Monday night he said he was feeling surprisingly well.....until Tuesday morning. He was sick and throwing up but the piled on the nausea meds and he did really well the rest of the day. After his last med yesterday they unhooked all his tubes from his lines. Now it's up to him to keep himself hydrated until Friday when they will hooked they fluids back up. I could tell by the look on his face that he was so happy not to have to drag that stuip iv pole around with him for a couple of days! One of the things he has to do is get out of his room and walk around the halls at least 3 times a day. Once he gets going he just trucks right along. Last night we walked up and down the hallway for a good 20 minutes :) He got sick again early this morning, but felt well enough a little later to order some french toast for breakfast. Since all oh his counts are still pretty normal they said that he can go outside. He still has to wear his mask, gown and gloves (standard procedure whenever he leaves his room) but im sure it wll feel so good to feel the warm sun! So far, so good though! 3 meds down....5 to go in the next 3 days, and day of rest then they will do the stem cell transplant Sunday. ^ days later they will give him a shot that will help his white blood cells grow faster than normal. After that we just wait for him to recover enough to get to go home. He can have visitors, not tons at a time, but there are no visiting hours. It's just up to Josh and how he feels. He's always open to text messages and emails (joshjonesy@me.com) to keep in touch with the world. He may not respond right away, but will when he feels up to it. I don't want to post all his info on here, so let one of us know if you want to visit and we can make it happen :) Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of the thoughts, prayers and support for our family. We are so blessed!!