SLC BOUND!!!

Well the time has finally come my dad is ready to DOMINATE and DEFEAT cancer!  After getting his diagnosis in April 2010 he has been steadily winning against Myeloma every month his numbers have continued to drop and they got the call a few weeks ago that we are ready to rock and roll! 

This has to be weird for my dad,  he has gotten so used to his routine of taking his pills or shots of low dose chemo for going on 8 months,  all the while he has been able to continue to work and live his life for the most part I'm not saying he loved the pills and shots but he got used to it and now we are entering a whole new phase.  We will drive up on Wednesday, January 27th and my dad will not be coming back to Vegas for probably 8-9 weeks until his WBC and Platelets are high enough that the doctors let him come home.  

But look he is a cool dude and ready for this!

My dad will start treatment Friday, January 29th.  He will receive shots a few times a day that will boost his stem cells ( kind of like when you are going through invitro and you are trying to boost your eggs) he will do this for I believe 10 days,  then he will have a stem cell collection where he will be hooked up to a machine for a few hours at a time and it will filter the blood in his body and separate out the good and the bad cells.  We are told this can take 3-5 days.  None of this first part hurts, in fact my dad has given blood every couple months for years so I doubt he even notices most of it. Then comes the not so fun part.  In order to receive his good cells back and to hopefully kick cancers ass he has to receive the highest form of chemo a person's body can handle to kill everything in his body both bad and good,  he does this for a few days and then once his body is ready he receives the good stem cells back and we wait for his WBC and his Platelets to rise high enough that they will kick him out of the hospital.  From there he has to stay in SLC for a few more weeks just to be close for his doctors appointments.   You do not normally find out your true new numbers for about 60-90 days after your SCT. 

My mom and dad will obviously be up in SLC the entire time, they  have rented a nice furnished apartment at the Gateway and it has a pull out sofa and a air mattress perfect for family to stay.  My dad will be a IN patient for about 4 weeks out of the 9 and will be at the apartment for the remainder of the time.

Once we come home we are not out of the woods yet,   in the process of getting the Melaphan (the high dose chemo)  it basically wipes away all the years of vaccines my dad has had and he will not be able to be vaccinated for a year after his SCT,  so we are not going to put him in a bubble but we will be VERY careful about who he sees and if he needs to wear a mask etc.  He is going to hate it and probably us too but oh well!

I know my mom and dad will try to blog as much as they can but if you do not find a update from him jump over here and I will try to fill in the gaps.   My plan is to be up there to get them settled in,  for his high dose chemo and anything in between I think I need to be a part of.  I am lucky to have an amazing boss and company who basically said to me whatever time I need off I can have.  I am thankful for an amazing husband who realizes how important this is to me and is just letting me do my thing. And also for friends and family who have told me anything we need they are there to help out.  There is NOTHING I wouldn't do for my parents and if I am just up there to make them laugh and fetch food then that's what I will do.  :)

So tonight I am packing up my boots and my heavy jackets and my next blog will be coming to you from SALT LAKE CITY!

Thanks again to everyone for all your good thoughts/vibes and prayers.  They are powerful and we feel them.