Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Day "-7" - Admission Day

Hey Everyone!

Today is our official "admissions day" - which is called "Day -7" - tomorrow will be -6 and so on till Day 0 which is transplant day and then they start counting up from there.

Yesterday, Dad and I went to the last of his outpatient appointments:  one with the social worker, one to get a last set of labs, and one with his Stem Cell Transplant Doctor to sign all the final release/consent papers.  They all went well but, nothing like all the medical risks and sign-off's to give you a dose of scary reality...... They basically told us that 50% of patients who undergo the transplant, experience no return of their disease, while 25% do have return of their disease and the remaining 25% do not live through the transplant process due to any number of transplant or infection related complications.  So, basically we have a 50/50 shot "statistically speaking" and the bad end of the 50% was a little more grimacing than we had realized- with 25% of patients dying of complications...... BUT, we are reporting that, not to be negative- only to share the info with all of our loved ones, so that everyone knows the situation without us having to relay it separately to everyone :) - Please understand that WE feel like dad is already ahead of the stats because of his overall youth and vitality- not to mention his warrior attitude!!!  So, we are going forward intending to accept NOTHING LESS than TOTAL SUCCESS & HEALING and a long and healthy, disease FREE future for dad!!! :) 

Well, now that that is out of the way, I wanted to share with you the schedule going forward:
Today is Admission Day,
Tomorrow and the following 3 days (so, 4 total) will be when he receives the serious Chemotherapy,
Then he has 2 days of Anti-rejection immune supressing medications,
Then we are at Day 0 = Transplant Day!! (done basically the same way as a blood transfusion in his room)
Followed by 2 days of Rituximab Chemotherapy.
So, that is the basic schedule for the upcoming days!

We enjoyed a nice evening last night - watched an entertaining movie and then hung out on the roof patio for some fresh air and a beautiful view till almost midnight :) 

I will update again tonight to let everyone know that he is settled into his room :)

Please keep the prayers coming, along with the positive thoughts - they have not let us down - :) - We have been feeling the incredible power of prayer and God's Hand over all of this :) 

Much LOVE!

3 comments:

  1. Prayers will not stop!!
    Simon Siegert and family!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you SO much Simon!!! We REALLY REALLY appreciate it!! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jessica - Whoa, so much to digest! Fr. Frank said to tell Melvin that he continues to keep him in his prayers. All my freinds at St. Anselm continue to pray for Melvin as well. I know that you will be such a reinforcing spirit for Melvin, not to mention one heck of a wonderful help. Let any of your many freinds know if any of us can help dad, you, mom or Dan. We are all here for all of you. Keep the strength, the prayers are flowing. Take care! Claudia

    ReplyDelete