JD - 21 months (almost)

Discharged

Jeff was discharged on Saturday. The transplant will probably be in about a month. In the mean time, he'll be getting another round of chemo to ensure he remains in remission.

Be Informed

Please read this article.

Things Did Look Good

But, sometime late last night Jeff got the chills and started running a temp. His joints are aching, his head is pounding and his back hurts. He has a little bit of chest congestion.

So, Jeff is back in Hershey with his Mom (thank goodness for Marilyn), while I finish up the work week. He was admitted this afternoon, and we'll hopefully have a diagnosis soon.

On another note...

We can continue planning for the transplant, as GE has overturned Health America's denial. What a relief!

Surgery

The placement of the Ommaya reservoir went off without a hitch this morning. Jeff is now enjoying a little morphine and getting ready to eat lunch.

JD - 20 Months

The Whole Story

Instead of rehashing the entire story and annoying myself again, I'm only going to say that Jeff didn't get his Ommaya placed yesterday, and according to me, it was caused by a bit of myopia on the part of the surgical staff. It's been rescheduled for next week, and it seems that things will be a little better organized.

As you can see from Danielle's comment, she has been a bit of thorn in my side since the day she was born. She is, however, my "sister," and I love her to pieces.

A pitcher of long island ice tea and a hot tub is good medicine when you're feeling annoyed.

No surgery today. To say I'm annoyed is an understatement. Will explain when I get to a computer.

Another Port

Jeff's body is now stable enough to handle neurosurgery, and he will be getting the Ommaya reservoir "installed" on Thursday. This port will give the medical staff easy access to Jeff's central nervous fluid for the purposes of administering chemo and for sampling the fluid to make sure it remains leukemia-free. The neuro guys tell us that the procedure is pretty simple and Jeff's stay at the hospital should only be about 23 hours.

Other than a little bit of neurosurgery, we're hoping to have an uneventful week. We're still working out insurance issues, but I'm hoping to have a solution sorted out very soon.

JD is still the most lovable creature on the planet, and his dimples can brighten my day in no time at all. I'll have to post some more pictures soon.

Step One

We can now check off step number one. Jeff's biopsy looked good, and the doctor is calling it remission. Before anything else can happen, his kidneys need to heal, but it looks like we're on our way to another transplant.

Nothing New

We're still waiting on biopsy results - we should know something by tomorrow. Jeff's kidneys continue to show improvement and his blood counts are looking pretty good.