Busy Busy Busy

Oh my lord we have been busy NONSTOP this whole week! On Wednesday my mom and I drove to Austin to pick up Cassidy who flew in Tuesday night. Angel and Tom picked him up at the airport and he stayed the night at their house. So Wednesday morning we head out with snacks and water and start the 3 1/2 hour drive. We decided to stay the night at Angel's and then drive back in the morning in time for my 1:30 pm appointment with my stem cell transplant doctor. Wednesday night we went out to eat with Angel, Tom and their 6 year old daughter Teagan who is very cute! I had a great night spending time with them; it's nice getting to know my family. Thursday morning (at 6 am :( ) I find out Cassidy has not slept at all (jet lag) and my mom was a little tired from last night (too much wine). I decided I would drive back to Houston after pushing everyone out the door at 8:30 (after a lovely breakfast) so that we could get to the airport and pick up Cassidy's bags before going to the clinic. This added another 40 minutes to the trip so I was definitely nervous about getting to my appointment on time.

Driving was SCARY!!! I haven't driven a car in months and the first time I get back behind the wheel I have to go 60 mph with really big trucks next to me. It took a while but with the help of cruise control I was able to get the hang of the high speeds, many traffic lanes and speeding cars. We succeeded in not getting lost (except when we got to the medical center) and not crashing the car! yay! Cassidy got his bags and I made it to my appointment on time. My blood pressure has been low lately but being stressed out for 4 hours while driving made it go back up to 115/68 :). Driving was not comfortable thanks to the pooka in my hip (bone marrow biopsy bruise) and it's still sore after 5 days!!! It's driving me nuts!

So my appointment on Thursday went well; I met my transplant doctor (he is from Romania) and I found out a little more about my disease. I found out that due to a certain messed up gene, my leukemia is not curable without the stem cell (also known as bone marrow) transplant. I am officially in remission and the goal is to keep me in remission before I have the transplant. He did not say why, but he was very stern when he said we do not want the leukemia to come back again. Hopefully Travis or Chelsea are matches and we can do the transplant next month, but if not then it might be a couple of months (and therefore a couple of chemo treatments) before they find a mathch on the registry. When the transplant process starts it should be approximately 4 months before I am in the OK zone. Then for the next 2 years we just cross our fingers and pray that it doesn't come back :) otherwise we gotta do it all over again. I start my first round of consolidation on Monday at 6:00 pm. I will go Monday and Tuesday for a 30 minute dose of chemo and for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I will have a 24 hour continuous dose of cytarabine chemo. Then I will start the recovery process again. I am hoping that my counts will be good enough by August so that I can go to Travis' graduation and see my family. I miss everyone and it would be so amazing to see them!

Friday was a long day as well. It started at 7:00 am at the clinic to get my blood drawn for my counts; they came back very good :) We met with my leukemia doctor (who is from Germany and very tall) to talk about the steps for consolidation and to get that process started. By the time we left the hospital is was 11:00 am and my mom and I were starving! We have to bring snacks with us all the time because we end up waiting and being there all day! My appointments on Monday start at 8:30am, 1:30pm to get my PICC line put into my arm again (so i won't get poked no more) and then chemotherapy at 6:00pm. That will be another long day. BUT! at least I get to go home :)

Speaking of home we have been shopping at IKEA for home furniture! We actually found a lot of really good things for the apartment for cheap prices:). On Friday we were there for 3 hours picking things out and then planning on coming back on Saturday with TIffany and her boyfriend Josh who has a truck. We picked out a couch, dresser/desk for the study, entertainment center, chair, side table, living room table...and other assortment of things and today (Saturday) loaded it all up onto Josh's truck and Janet's car. We got lucky; everything fit perfectly! Today was another 3 hour trip at IKEA (that store is way too big with way too many things to look at). We got the keys to the apartment today and filled the living room with boxes. Tomorrow we have to get beds, dining room table and other essential needs (from Target and Ross). Cassidy will start putting everything together while the girls shop :).

OH! Last night Cassidy and I watched the final Harry Potter movie. It was very good but sad that those stories are over. Tonight, we all went to the Alley Theatre and watched a play called "And There Was None". It was very good! I always enjoy going to the theatre and watching a show. :) Thank you Janet!

Well, off to bed to sleep before another busy day. Hopefully I'll have more free time to update more often. I will let you know how my next round of chemo goes!

love you all!

-Savy