Sunday, April 26, 2009

So I'm still in the hospital and will be until my blood counts start coming back up. Hopefully I'll at least get a few days out before I go into the transplant unit. I've had some nausea from the medications and have spiked a high fever everyday so I haven't felt the best. Hopefully my blood counts will come up soon and these problems will go away.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Unfortunately I don't have good news today. I got a fever last night and had to come back to the hospital. They've put me on IV antibiotics to hopefully kick whatever is causing the fever. My temperature is down today so this has made me feel much better even though I'm in the hospital. This isn't out of the ordinary and doesn't really set us back any long term.

Amy

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

So today we got the news we've been waiting for. We got word that my bone marrow match is willing and able to be a donor!! From this point things will move a little fast. I will re-enter the hospital on May 4 to start a week of both chemo and radiation in order to wipe out my bone marrow and then May 12 will be the big day of the transplant. I will be in the hospital at least 30 days after the transplant occurs.

We praise God for having such a quick and easy time finding a donor. It doesn't happen this way for everyone and this is why it is important to join the National Donor Registry.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Hi everyone. As planned I was released from the hospital today and am back at the apartment. The week went extremely well considering my past rounds. I am having a little nausea but it seems like it is being controlled my the anti-nausea medicines well.

Tomorrow I go to the clinic for a shot to help my blood counts recover more quickly. I am also going to have lots of "baseline" tests that they do before a bone marrow transplant to be able to track any damage done to my body from radiation/chemo/or the transplant itself. It will be a long day but they are all things that need to be done.

Wishing you all a good week,

Amy

Thursday, April 16, 2009

There's not much to report from here. So far I'm feeling good and haven't had any side effects from the chemo but it is still early. We're still hoping for a good week!

We send out a big thank you to everyone who helped with the very successful golf tournament yesterday. I know my dad had a blast and hope everyone else did too!

Amy

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

So I am back in the hospital for the "consolidation" treatment I have written about. It is one of the same chemo drugs I had for the first two rounds but instead of 12 treatments I will get a total of 6 treatments and they will be spread out more. My first treatment will be tonight and my last treatment will be Sunday morning. Hopefully I will be released Sunday afternoon. This round of chemo definitely should not be as hard as the last so I'm hoping for a good week.

God bless you all,

Amy

Thursday, April 9, 2009

GREAT NEWS TODAY!!! We can officially use the word remission! We got the results from Tuesday's bone marrow biopsy and there were absolutely no signs of leukemia. This allows us to move forward with the plans for the bone marrow transplant (to have a bone marrow transplant you must be in remission). All other plans stay the same, I will go in the hospital on Tuesday for a 5 day chemo treatment to keep me in remission.

Hope everyone is having a great day,

Amy

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Hi, Greg (Amy's Dad) here, I asked Amy if I could post a message today. Things are still going well here, Amy feels pretty well but gets tired easily. Her tastes are improving, at least to the point where she can find foods to enjoy. The bone marrow biopsy is still scheduled for Tuesday, assuming we get a clear report, the marrow transplant will still be a minimum of six weeks away.

My main reason for posting this message is to attempt to thank all of you for your continued love and support. The outpouring of support has been absolutely tremendous and overwhelming for all of us. We have attempted to thank many of you individually but there have been so many others, that we don't even know who you are. The "Cucci" day, the hymn sing at our church, and the benefit sing at Scott Hill were all wonderful, and the upcoming golf tournament already has many signed up to play. I just do not have sufficient words to express our true feelings of gratitude. Thank you all, many many times over.

Many of you know that I send out a daily update e-mail, totally separate from this blog site.
If you wish to be added to that e-mail list, then simply send that request to gevess@aol.com and you will be added to the list.

Love and prayers to all, Greg Vess

Thursday, April 2, 2009

So my appointment with the doctor went well this morning. My blood counts were "more normal" than they have been since this started so this is a really good sign. For those of you familiar with blood counts my white blood count was up to 7.1 which is in the normal range. Platelets were 88,000 which is still low but again higher even than my initial blood work before the original chemo. However the good report, today hasn't been the best day as far as how I'm feeling. I had a lot of trouble sleeping last night and some nausea this morning so they were nice enough to postpone my biopsy until Tuesday.

The next step will be what they call a "consolidation" chemo treatment which will be the week after next (sometime the week of 4/13). This will be a 5-7 day chemo treatment but it will not be as strong as the last one. It is also my understanding that I will be released from the hospital after the 5-7 days and stay out until I spike a fever which is very common.

This is lots of medical jargon so I hope it makes sense. As always thanks for the prayers I know they are being answered.

Amy