Two week update

I can't believe that two weeks have already gone by! For 3 days after treatment, Josh was pretty miserable. Ok, we were both pretty miserable! Josh really wanted something to eat but didn't know what he wanted, leaving me making and throwing food away faster than he could ask for it. On Tuesday morning, at about 5:30 am, he woke me up to tell me that he thinks he was finally over the hump. I could tell by the sound of his voice and was super happy for him.....us! Each day he got a little better and ate a little more.
On the 17th we went to see Dr. Legant to see if Josh's blood levels were good enough to start another round the following Tuesday. On the way to the appointment Josh kept telling me that he didn't fell well enough to go back just yet. Well, he was right. His blood levels were almost nonexistent. His white blood count was 0.8, (I think) meaning 800. The low end of normal is 4.0 or 4,000. His platelets were 47. The low end of normal is 150. Needless to say, the chemo medicine was doing its job.....very well. With his blood counts being so low, he defiantly wasn't ready to go for more treatment. In fact, he wasn't to be going anywhere. Because of the super low white count, she advised him to not go anywhere where there is lots of germs and big crowds. It was fine for him to be outside in the open air, but he needed to stay close to home in case he started to feel weak. He felt really good until she told him about his blood level counts. When we got in the car he told me that because she said he really shouldn't be feeling all that well that maybe he did feel so good after all. Luckily, he fought through the mind games and had a pretty good weekend. As far as staying out of big crowds, well that's another story. Peyton had a 4 game basketball tournament over the weekend that Josh was not going to miss. He did really good about sitting by himself away from the other people and leaving as soon as it was over. He said that he could miss it since he was feeling so well. Peyts was so glad he made it to all his games. I don't think he plays as hard when Josh isn't there.
We went back to Dr. Legant yesterday (the 22nd) to make sure his neaulasta shot was working to bring his white count up faster than usual. She said that he has young marrow that bounces back quickly. In 6 days, his white count was above normal at 9.1 or 9,100. He still feels a little low on energy, but looks and feels really, really well. After a quick visit to his doctor Tuesday morning, we will go back into the hospital for the second round of meds. She is going to order more nausea medicine this go round, hoping that he won't be so miserable following the treatment. After this round, we will wait two weeks before we go up to the Huntsman for another PET scan and then another week to get the results. These results will determine if he has to have another round of chemo or if we can move on to the transplant procedure.
I will update again next week to let you all know how treatment week went. Until then.....thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you for the dinners, text messages, thoughts and prayers!! We are so, so grateful to have such amazing people in our lives!!!!

One round down, one round to go

Here is the week in review through the email updates I sent to Josh's family each day he was in the hospital:

Tuesday, Feb 7th- We made it here to IMC, we've been here since about 10:00 AM. It's about 1:00 and no chemo meds yet, just getting lots of fluids right now. This first med is hard on his bladder, so they want him to keep it working as much as possible. They finally got his one chemo medicine started about 3:30 and he handled it really well. When I went home this evening, the boys got to facetime Josh from my phone to see and talk to him before Peyton left for baseball practice. I stayed home long enough so that Kylie could have a turn when she got home from dance. Thank you Apple products!

Wednesday, Feb 8th- Josh is doing really good this morning. We made a little trip around the halls this afternoon, to keep his legs working. He threw up once last night, so they gave him a stronger nausea medicine and he slept good most of the night. His doctor came in this morning to check on him. She said his blood work and vitals all look beautiful. Today he'll start treatment about 1:00. He gets all three meds today, so it may be a bit rougher than yesterday, but they are going to double up on the nausea meds.....hopefully it helps. My mom brought Kasen and Kylie up to see Josh this morning.....he loved seeing them. Peyton came back to the hospital with me after his game to watch the North Carolina/Duke game with Josh. Those two always watch that game together, so I was glad Peyton wanted to go and hangout at the hospital.

Thursday, Feb 9th- Josh did pretty dang good yesterday. He ate and drank really well and stayed up all day. He got around to showering last night and that made him feel good and relaxed. He got sick about 4:00 this morning and threw up a bit. They gave him a strong dose of nausea medicine and he's been sleeping since. His doc came in to see him this morning and she said she wants to keep him one more night. She wants to make sure he stays well hydrated.....worrying about renal failure and she said his platelets are a little low so she wants to keep and on that too. His 24 hour med will be done sometime around 4:00 PM and then he'll get his last dose for this round and that takes about an hour to go in.

Friday, Feb 10th- YAY, our last update from the hospital.....this week. Josh sleep ALL day yesterday. Between the chemo meds and all the nausea medicine, he was knocked out. When I got back from Peyton's basketball game about 7:30 he was just coming out of it. Needless to say he wasn't so tired when bedtime rolled around. He was up to getting out of bed, so we took another lap around the hallway. He didn't eat or drink anything at all today. I got him a chocolate shake when I got back last night but he didn't even eat half of it. You know Josh really isn't felling well if he won't even eat ice cream! It turned out to be an interesting night. About 8:30ish they came in to get the routine vitals and noticed that he had a slow heartbeat. The last couple of days his pulse has been in the 60-70 range and last night it was in the mid 40-low 50 range. They called his doctor and she asked that he be put on a monitor and to notify her if it dips below 45. Well, that didn't take long. She was notified and an EKG was ordered. When they were doing the test his pulse sat at 44-45. All night the monitor keep beeping when his pulse dropped to 45 or lower. Josh keep yelling "geez, stupid thing." I'm not sure if it was at the machine or his heart. It made us both a bit nervous but they didn't rush in his room when it went off and his doctor never came in so by about 3:00 am we decided we were tired to get some sleep. His doctor came in about 8:00 this morning and said that he is totally fine. His EKG was normal, just slow and his oxygen intake his good. The slow heartbeat his a reaction to the "I" medicine. She said that he handled this round beautifully.

We finally made it home about 4:00 this afternoon. We were ready to go at noon, but had to stick around longer so Josh could get his nuelasta shot at 3:00. Josh goes in on Thursday to get some blood work done. His doctor wants to make sure his blood counts are normal. If they are low he will need a transfusion right away. We then go into the doctors office Friday. If all is well she will go ahead with the second round of treatments on the 20th. If his blood levels aren't where they should be he will have to wait another week and start on the 27th.

A really, really big huge thanks to my amazing mom who has been here since Saturday helping us out with our kids. She has played mom to them all week and has been taking care of the household duties. Tons and tons of thank yous go out to Josh's Grandpa and Grandma, his brother Justin and his other brother Jason and his wife Amanda for coming to hanging out with Josh at different times so I could make it home to shower, take a little nap and see our kids for a bit and I was able to make it to both of Peyton's basketball games. More big thank yous to all of you who picked up and brought home our kids from all there activities this week. Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you who are checking on us daily and keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. I honestly could not have made it through this week without all of the help. We are truly blessed!!

Bone Marrow Meeting

On the 3rd, Josh and I meet with the Bone Marrow team up at LDS Hospital. It was about a 4 hour appointment where Josh filled out some paperwork, meet with the doctor's physician's assistant for an exam and then we meet with the doctor and a case worker. There was A LOT of information! The short story of the process is that after his second round of chemo we will go back up to LDS and they will do an evaluation of Josh's heart, lungs and other things to make sure he his healthy enough to undergo the transplant. Once they get those results back and if everything looks good they will start the procedure of collecting his stem cells. They hook him up to a machine that will draw his blood. When his blood is being drawn the machine will separate the good cells that they can use. They will then begin the high dose chemo treatment, which will go in over 4 days. After the treatment is complete, they will unfreeze the stem cells and put them back in him. He will be hospitalized for 3 weeks while they complete the transplant and make sure that there are no complications. When he comes home I will need to be with him all day, everyday for 3 weeks just in case he breaks a fever or has a reaction he will be able to get back to LDS immediately. He will have to wear masks that cover his nose and mouth when he is out and about and he will need to be very careful of where he goes and who he's around for the first 3 months. It will take nine months to a year before he feels like he is almost normal and will be able to go back to work. It's going to be a long road to recovery, but he's pretty healthy this time around so I think he'll do pretty well.

Treatment Plan

We meet with Dr. Legant today to finalize Josh's treatment plan. Said because he's "a healthy guy" he may only need 2 treatments instead of 3 or 4. He will be given a cocktail called I.C.E. (but I can't remember what the letters stand for). He will also take some pills to help with his kidneys, because one of these has some side effects that damage the kidneys. Also, with one of the other meds, he will get an extra medicine that will help off set the side effects that can damage his bladder. He will also be getting a ton of fluid to help keep everything working. This is what Chemo week will look like:

Monday: Blood work and Picc line care at Jordan Valley, then we'll meet with Dr. Legant later in the afternoon to get the blood results and make sure he's good for another round of chemo.

Tuesday: Check into IMC hospital and begin treatment. The first round of the 'E' medicine will be given.

Wednesday: All 3 meds (I.C. & E.) will be given. The 'I' medicine will go in over a course of 24 hours.

Thursday: The last round of 'E' will be given. If all goes well and he's feeling good, he can go home after every last drop of medicine has been put in him. If Dr. Legant isn't so sure he's well enough, he'll get to stay another night.

Friday: 24 hours after the end of his last medicine on Thursday, we'll go back to Jordan Valley and he'll get a Neulasta shot. This helps his blood cells grow faster than usual, reducing his chance of getting an infection.

Treatment week will be once every two or three weeks, depending on how well he does. Dr. Legant does rounds at IMC every morning between 7:30 and 8:00, so she will be checking in on him everyday he's there.

Tomorrow afternoon we meet with the Bone Marrow team at LDS to get more information on how that process will work, so until then.....