22 Jul 2003

Off and running...

Howdy. Well, we've started. Jade and I went to the hospital early this morning to get him admitted, unpacked/settled into his room and get the first day of chemo started. The past few months he has had alternating A and B rounds of chemo. In the next five days (counting today) he will have both A and B rounds of chemo in the same week and at double the strength as previously administered. The point is to kill of the remainder of his bone marrow and then next Monday give his stem cells as a rescue to pull him back up.

It was a little difficult to look at the small hospital room and realize that's your whole world for a month. Any time Jade leaves (they came and got him for a chest x-ray) he has to wear a mask, full body gown and gloves. He can walk around the hallway if he wants but he has to wear that attire.

Jade was really trying to have a good attitude today but we both struggled a little saying good-bye to Garrett and leaving this morning. (I've always respected military families but now even more so.) Jade and I called Garrett at lunch time to gab on the phone.

The anticipation is that next week will be one of the hardest as he's bottomed out with no bone marrow/immune system and waiting for his stem cells to replicate and differentiate and go to work. There are lots of really fun potential side effects but we'll get into that more next week. We're trying to go day by day.

Thanks for the love, faith and support. We are lucky to have wonderful friends and family. Take care and stay cool in this summer heat!

Much love..................Tanya and co.


P.S. If any of you want, Jade's birthday is August 7th and I'll be delivering birthday cards that day and taping them to his walls to help cheer him up (they won't allow flowers or many other things into the room) so if you want, just mail them in the next week or so to: P.O. Box 1144, Riverton, UT 84065.