Two Million and Counting 11/30/05

Today was my first day to collect stem cells. I spent five hours connected to a machine. I had to lay in bed with one arm straight and they told me not to move it. That pretty much narrowed my activities to watching TV and sleeping. Since I just got out of bed and had coffee not thirty minutes ago, sleeping was pretty much out of the question except toward the end close to noon when my blood sugar was beginning to wane. I guess the stem cell collection process must take it out of you so to speak because I haven't felt too frisky since. They called this afternoon and said they collected 1.8 million. On the one hand, a million is a big number especially if you are talking about dollars. On the other hand, when you are aiming at nine million and talking about something microscopic in size, 1.8 million sounds kind of puny. Oh well, tomorrow is another day... and the next day, and the next....

Stay tuned as usual for further developments.

Good to GO 11/29/05

This morning we woke to very slight snow on the ground, cold temperature, and very little wind. The weather is almost the same this afternoon but it feels colder maybe because the wind has picked up a little.

I went to the Charlton building lobby level this morning as usual to get my growth factor injections and blood drawn for CD34 test. Yesterday, the CD34 level was 5.4. I got a call a few minutes ago from the Nurse Coordinator at Charlton Station 9-4 reporting my CD34 test results for today. Today I am a 10.3. That means I will be reporting to Charlton Desk 10 East tomorrow morning to begin stem cell collection. I am told stem cell collection sessions can go for five hours. However, at this point, the "marker," if you will, we are aiming for is 9 million stem cells collected. They will get as many as they can per session until we reach nine million. When I go to transplant, they will use 3 million of my stored stem cells and save the remainder for when they might be needed later.

I got checked by the dentist this afternoon. He said I was good to go. I also got a dental x-ray by a new machine that was so cool. You are required to stand rather than recline in a chair. The new machine is basically similar to the old ones that take a picture of your entire mouth except that it is digital and uses no x-ray film. It sends the picture directly to a computer. They gave me a glossy printout to take back home to my dentist.

During our free time this morning, we went to the Urology Department to try to get my appointment with the Urologist moved from Thursday to today. They rescheduled me for this morning. After visiting with two Urologists, they pronounced me urologically fit. We have no idea where the blood was coming from but are fairly certain whatever it was is not additional cancer and does not pose a significant risk to proceeding with transplant.

There are lots of stores in the subway: clothing stores, fast food restaurants, specialty stores, etc. While we were in the pharmacy store the other day, I saw a CD titled, How to Talk Minnesotan - A Visitor's Guide. It is a recording of a book by the same title written by Howard Mohr, a writer for the Prairie Home Companion as heard on National Public Radio. Since I am a fan of Prairie Home Companion and Garrison Keillor, it caught my attention. I checked it out on the internet and decided I might try to pick up a copy if I found myself in a book store any time soon. Well, we visited the local Barns and Noble book store today and I bought a copy of the book. So far, the book is not so bad. I'm going to have to start listening a little closer to native Minnesotans to confirm some of the stuff in the book. You can check out the book for yourself at

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140092846/103-1202165-9659808?v=glance&n=283155&s=books&v=glance

The thing I like about this book (and many others with the same kind of poking-fun-at-rural-life style humor) is that we in the South are cast in somewhat the same light as the rural Minnesotan and can share that in common. There are many in Minnesota who resent this kind of humor as there are many in the South who resent being stereotyped as the dumb Gomer from the South. But as a friend from the Pacific Northwest once told me, you can sometimes use that to your advantage.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for further developments.

Another Day at the Office 11/28/05

Well, we got there early and stayed late. The waiting room at the Charlton building desk L-A was a bit more crowded today than yesterday. It was just about standing room only. The line waiting to check in stretched the length of the waiting room, about 30 feet. That was going in. About an hour later, after I had gotten my blood work done and the growth factor injection, the line was over twice that long! I asked someone why the patient population seemed so much larger now in the icy, snowy, holiday season than back in August. I should have known the answer. Many of the patients have met their insurance deductibles and are trying to get medical treatment on this year's insurance dollar. Next year it will cost them when they will have to start paying the deductible all over again. So, if you are planning a trip to Mayo clinic and want to come when the patient population is low, plan your trip in January and bring your snow shoes with you.

One of the blood tests they did today gave them the amount of CD34 protein in my blood. The quantity of CD34 is directly proportional to the number of stem cells. Ideally, the amount of CD34 would be greater than 10. Mine today was a 5. That means I will be getting another injection of growth factor tomorrow morning rather than beginning the stem cell collection. I may have to go several more days before the CD34 number comes up to a 10.

The last appointment on the list today was the psychologist. They tell me all the cancer patients see the psychologist as part of their treatment. I think that is a pretty good idea because there are times when the psychiatric profession can lend some positive support. Not to mention weeding out the paranoid sczyphrenics with delusions of grandeur like me ;)

Also, the Urology department worked me over pretty good today. I am supposed to meet with the Urologist Thursday to find out the results.

We were also told my potassium level was a touch low and that I needed to eat a baked potato tonight. We used that as a "reason" to go to the local steak house and have a steak and baked potato - ha.

The temperature dropped quite a bit today. It is drizzly and cold outside. We may have another blanket of snow in the morning. Stay tuned for further developments.

Heat Wave 11/27/05

Only a few short days after the snow and we are having forty degree weather! The snow is rapidly melting. The streets are clear for the most part. We went to one of the local super markets, Hi Vee, and bought groceries yesterday. We also went to Kmart and took advantage of the huge discounts. We decided we better get out while the getting is good because the forecast is for more snow middle or end of next week. Monday is supposed to be pretty much same as today temperature wise. Then Tuesday back into the deep freeze with lows in the twenties, winds 15 to 20 MPH, and 60% chance of snow with accumulations of one inch. Thursday lows in the teens. I love it.

Today we have heavy fog due to "warm" temperature over cold ground. It is the kind of fog that will get you wet as you travel through it. We did some sight seeing in north Rochester after lunch. We could see the stores along the sides of the road but that is about all. We passed the IBM building but could only see the sign out front. I am told it is a big blue colored glass building. That is about what you would expect from IBM -- Big Blue.

Medically, things have been a bit slow over the weekend but will pick back up beginning early Monday. They started me on a medication Friday which causes my white blood cells to increase in order to get maximum number of stem cells later when they collect them. I get two injections in my abdomen every day until Tuesday. Sounds interesting doesn't it.

We are getting ready to go to worship service at the church building across the street. I'll try to give you another update tomorrow.

Glass Art at Mayo 11/26/05

Sculpture and paintings are displayed in the halls, on the walls, and hanging from the ceilings at Mayo clinic. Here is some glass art hanging from the ceiling outside the cancer center.

Snow 11/25/05

A few nights ago, they were saying on the local news that they usually had snow on the ground on Thanksgiving day. Well, a day late isn't missing it by much. I can barely remember the last time we had snow in Columbus, MS. It is supposed to snow most of the day today.

Here is a link to the Minneapolis/St.Paul TV station, WCCO, in case you might want to check out what is going on in the Minneapolis area.

http://wcco.com/

Thanksgiving 2005

We had Thanksgiving at the Transplant House today. The dinner was pot luck. We bought two turkey breasts at the grocery store. A lady brought in 25 pounds of turkey breast last night and there was a whole turkey. I carved and sliced the turkeys. It was just enough turkey to feed everyone with some left over. There were lots of people here for the dinner. We met a very nice couple who we ate lunch with and visited with for several hours afterward.

We went for a walk about four. The temperature was 18 degrees and the wind was blowing out of the west at about five miles per hour or so. We made it about five blocks and back - ha.

Thanksgiving is a time to think about what you are thankful for. When you have spent several days at Mayo clinic, it is easy to find lots of things to be thankful for usually health related. I'm just glad to be in a place where I have the confidence the doctors can help me and give me the best possible treatment. Other than that, there are probably a million other things too numerous to mention to be thankful for. You might not care to spend the next eight or ten hours reading about it either (you can be thankful for that). May God bless everyone on this special day!

Our Visit With Dr. Haymen 11/23/05

To make a long story short, we decided to go ahead with the stem cell transplant rather than wait.

If I waited to do the transplant, I could return home and to work after the stem cell harvest is complete in a couple of weeks which is what I would prefer to do. However, the bone marrow biopsy (which is a small sample) indicated 40% cancer cells in my right ileum (hip). That is the bad news. The good news is that on a scale of zero to ten, the rate at which the cancer cells are dividing is a zero. So, the decision is either to go home loaded with cancer cells which hardly divide but sit there and eat on my bones from the inside or take some extra time now to kill as many of the slowly dividing cancer cells as possible with high dose chemotherapy in the hope the few remaining ones will remain insignificant as long as possible.

The decision to go ahead with the transplant is not an easy decision. I deeply regret I will be away from family, friends, and work for such an extended period but this is something that isn't giving me much other choice. I have an opportunity now to reduce the disease to a minimum and possibly stay off chemotherapy for a few years and be healthier. I am told I will be able to return to my work routine within several months but my immune system may not be fully recovered for a year or so.

My wife and I are thankful for and deeply appreciate all the effort on the part of so many friends, family, and even strangers to show concern in the form of kind words, prayers, cards, phone calls, e-mail, and in other ways. Please continue to pray for us.

First two days at Mayo Clinic

I have been so busy with tests at the clinic and moving into the room I haven't had much of a chance to write until now. Last August I had some tests but that was nothing compared with this. I've had about double the number of tests and the ones like the MRI that have been repeats were more extensive. I'm supposed to visit with Dr. Haymen tomorrow and get the results of the tests. I am getting a bit anxious about that.

There is no shortage of sick people. It seems like there are more people here now than back in the summer. We thought the winter and the holidays would slow things down some but apparently we thought wrong. The Transplant House apparently stays full and we feel very blessed to have gotten a room. It has about 50 rooms.

So far, everything has gone very well. They have a couple of malls here and stores down town. We have been to WalMart twice. We bought two turkey breasts for our part of the pot luck Thanksgiving lunch at the Transplant House. There are three kitchens and we get refrigerator and freezer space so we can prepare our own meals. We still haven't gotten settled in enough to do much of that though. We did prepare our own breakfast this morning.

Someone commented today that there is usually a blanket of snow by Thanksgiving but so far this year any snow that has fallen has melted off. It has been fairly cold in the mornings and by Mississippi standards, cold during the day too. However, it is going to get colder eventually.

I'm kind of tired so this is about all for now. I'll try to update you tomorrow on what we decide about the transplant. I am anxious to find out what they say about my urinary tract problem and how that will affect plans.

Rochester, MN 11/20/05

Well, here we are in the wonderful winter wonderland of Rochester, MN. We left Troy this morning about 7:30 and arrived here around 3:30. It took us about 14 hours to drive 900 miles. We started out with overcast skies and 42 degrees. We passed famous Hannibal, MO. If we are feeling like it and the weather is nice, we may explore the town a bit on the way back. By the time we got a little north of Waterloo, IA, the temperature started to drop and we began seeing leftover snow on the sides of the road. By the time we got to Rochester, the temperature was 32. We had overcast skies all day. I haven't seen any leftover snow here in Rochestger so far. May see some fresh snow pretty soon though.

We had four lanes about 80 percent of the way which was nice. The scenery was nice too. The trees look like they are in the dead of winter--no leaves left at all. We kept remarking to each other how the landscape reminded us of places we have been. Once you get into northern Iowa, it is flat farm land and grid square highways--very few diagonals, sort of reminds you of east Texas. About the only evergreen trees you see is a few cedars here and there and usually a lot of various spruce and cedar planted around farm houses in double rows as a wind/snow break.

The Transplant House left us a message which said they have a room for us around 3 tomorrow. So we will move over there tomorrow.

That's about all I have for now. Check back later for updates from Jack's Travel Log.

Troy, MO 11/19/05

Well, this is the second time I am typing this. Somehow, between the pop-up blocker and the spell checker, my original post got erased--ugh!

The drive through southern Missouri on I55 reminded me of the flat farm land between Tupelo and West Point, MS. Later, we encountered some hill country south of St. Louis which was a lot like the hills around Hot Springs, AR. The temperature was in the mid-40's this morning when we left. It was 62 degrees when we were driving out of St. Louis around 5 PM.

We lucked out and found a real nice Super 8 Motel. It appears to be new. It is a three story brick building with an indoor pool, exercise room, frig and microwave in the room, continental breakfast, and wireless internet. It is right next to hwy. 61. I highly recommend it if you ever need a room on the way to Rochester, MN.

The drive tomorrow should be more interesting because it is mixed two and four lane which goes through several small towns. I'll try to post an update tomorrow.

Leaving for Mayo Clinic 11/19/05

Since I have to be there Monday and it takes two days to drive to Rodchester, MN., we will be leaving 11/19/05.

The doctors at Mayo wanted me to stop taking thal/dex two weeks before arriving at Mayo. It is nice for a change not being groggy and swimmy headed most of the time. I developed a urinary tract problem about three weeks ago that is trying to fix itself but hasn't quite succeeded. I'm sure the doctors at Mayo can help with the problem if it persists. After ultrasound, CT scans, and cystiscopy the doctors here have drawn a blank.

I'll try to keep you posted as events unfold.