Moving Forward

They are wtill watching Ben's numbers pretty closely. He went in today for labs and they were surprized to find that he did indeed have some white blood cells forming. He needed a transfusion to get his red cell counts back to where they want them so he has had his first of what may be many transfusions. Being new to this it is a bit unnerving but I guess things are going exactly as planned. They are targeting early next week for his stem cell harvest.

Once his counts begin to climb he will get a dose of hormones that will speed up the production of stem cells. This should not only increase the numbers for the harvest but help him recover more quickly from the affects of this last round of chemo. Monday or Tuesday they have tentatively scheduled surgery to place another line to be able to do the harvest. Unfortunately, once this line is in place he will be bed or lap bound and not able to walk or run around. I am sure that will make for long days until the harvest is completed. Not long afterward he should probably begin his next round of chemo.

We are still pretty up in the air regarding radiation treatments. We found out that he is not a slam dunk candidate for the proton radiation treatment our doctors have been discussing all along and that only one in five of those that are a slam dunk candidates get in to Boston. We are still on lists for Boston and Houston and hoping that the treatment is available in the timeline we need it. We know the doctors have Ben's best interest at heart and are doing everything they can to get him the treatments he needs.

The girls and I don't have words to express how excited we are about joining everyone in Seattle on Sunday -- barring any travel changes caused by Mt. Redoubt. It erupted again today but there has been some air traffic. Guess all we can do is wait and see what happens tomorrow . . .