Moving forward

It is Saturday night and Ken is doing very well. He had an eventful day yesterday. Let's see, he had 2 x-rays, a heart ultra sound, a torso cat scan, bone marrow biopsy and they removed one of Ken's chest tubes. It wore Ken out. During the evening, my son, Jeff and his wife Sara came to take me to dinner for Jeff's birthday. We left Ken to have a nap and then we returned for birthday cake in Ken's room. Ken was asleep soon after. Today, we have learned that the ultra sound looked good, but we won't get the rest of the results till next week. We also learned that Ken is not a candidate for the drug study that Dr. Myint wanted Ken to join. He can't take part because he has had too much Rituxin. That bummed him out, he was looking forward to being a part of it.

We had a visit from our daughter Stephanie and Heidi and her little Ava. It was great to see them. We had to go to the family room to visit because Ken can't have any kids under 12 in his room. They put him on the bone marrow transplant side, so there are different rules and regs here. We are learning more about Ken's prognosis and his path we are about to start. We have a schedule now at least, so we should be able to figure out his good and bad weeks. He got his 2nd chest tube out just now, so he is probably going home soon after his chemo. Yeah. We are hoping that happens Monday or Tuesday. We don't know yet, but they may start his chemo on Sunday, or Monday at the latest. The sooner they do it, the better for us. Ken was just talking to me about life without chest tubes and without leaking in his lungs. He can breathe. What a concept. And he will be able to breathe tomorrow and the next day too. Ken says, "It's a miracle". He is now laying flat in bed and watching "The 10 Commandments" while he recovers from the chest tube pull. The miracle is that he is laying flat. He hasn't slept laying down since early February.

So here is what we know about his life with chemo. For one thing, he can't have any live flowers or plants around once he starts, so thank you all for sending them in the past. They were beautiful. Ken's chemo will be in 3 week cycles. He will recieve the RCHOP chemo drugs on day 1. Then from day 1 till 5, he may have some nausea, but hopefully, the counter drugs will help. Then from day 7 - 14, Ken will be restricted quite heavily. He will have to stay home, eat only fresh cooked food, no uncooked food or left overs. This is the period when his immune system will be the weakest, so he will have to be careful then. But for days 15 -21, he should feel pretty good and be able to function somewhat normally. Then it starts again with another day of chemo. This will happen 6 to 8 times for about 6 months. I think Ken and I are in agreement that we want to come to Denver for all his chemo appointments. We both feel safer being treated here. At least he will be home in between. So we are waiting for chemo to start, we are waiting for the pain to stop from his chest surgery. But at least the healing has finally started. Weare on the road.

Bless you all on Easter. We are hoping that you enjoy a wonderful day of blessings with your families. We miss you all. Happy Easter. Bev and Ken