Hey All,
Welcome to the roller-coaster life of Jon! As some of you may know, the night before I was to begin chemotherapy in the hospital in preparation for the transplant, my doctors decided to temporarily postpone the whole procedure. Both Jadi and I were in the hospital that day. I had a small surgery to place a central line in my chest so the chemo and the tranplant could be delivered into a large vein near the heart, and Jadi spent all day with large needles in her arms and watching her blood cycle out of one arm, into a centrifuge and back into the other arm as her stem cells were collected. As you can imagine, with only about 14 hours before I was scheduled to begin chemo, we were not expecting to have the transplant called off. For the past few weeks my blood counts have improved. There is no logical reason for this improvement so the doctors would like to monitor my levels for a few weeks and ensure that they aren't going to continue to improve before they completely wipe out my ability to produce blood with chemotherapy. We all feel that a transplant is inevitible, but considering the risks involved, I think we are all grateful for the cautious judgement used by my doctors. Also, for those wondering, Jadi's stem cells will be frozen until the time for the transplant without any problem.
We had been mentally and emotionally preparing for the transplant for so long, and I think we truly felt up to the task, that when the news came that it was to be postponed, we really didn't know what to think. We felt like our plan had been disrupted and we felt emotionally and mentally drained. Once again, the anxiety of waiting is worse than the disease itself. Graciously, some of our friends allowed us to enjoy a little time at their beach house where we could just enjoy each other and take a little vacation from the worries of transplant and the stress of waiting for a decision to be made. That little trip was exactly what all of us needed. Fortunately, I have felt absolutely wonderful the past 3-4 weeks, which is also a change. Although I would like to get moving toward getting better, it is nice to just feel well and have time living somewhat of a normal life with my family.
Thanks again for riding the roller coaster with us! We'll keep you updated as we get more details.
JON
Welcome to the roller-coaster life of Jon! As some of you may know, the night before I was to begin chemotherapy in the hospital in preparation for the transplant, my doctors decided to temporarily postpone the whole procedure. Both Jadi and I were in the hospital that day. I had a small surgery to place a central line in my chest so the chemo and the tranplant could be delivered into a large vein near the heart, and Jadi spent all day with large needles in her arms and watching her blood cycle out of one arm, into a centrifuge and back into the other arm as her stem cells were collected. As you can imagine, with only about 14 hours before I was scheduled to begin chemo, we were not expecting to have the transplant called off. For the past few weeks my blood counts have improved. There is no logical reason for this improvement so the doctors would like to monitor my levels for a few weeks and ensure that they aren't going to continue to improve before they completely wipe out my ability to produce blood with chemotherapy. We all feel that a transplant is inevitible, but considering the risks involved, I think we are all grateful for the cautious judgement used by my doctors. Also, for those wondering, Jadi's stem cells will be frozen until the time for the transplant without any problem.
We had been mentally and emotionally preparing for the transplant for so long, and I think we truly felt up to the task, that when the news came that it was to be postponed, we really didn't know what to think. We felt like our plan had been disrupted and we felt emotionally and mentally drained. Once again, the anxiety of waiting is worse than the disease itself. Graciously, some of our friends allowed us to enjoy a little time at their beach house where we could just enjoy each other and take a little vacation from the worries of transplant and the stress of waiting for a decision to be made. That little trip was exactly what all of us needed. Fortunately, I have felt absolutely wonderful the past 3-4 weeks, which is also a change. Although I would like to get moving toward getting better, it is nice to just feel well and have time living somewhat of a normal life with my family.
Thanks again for riding the roller coaster with us! We'll keep you updated as we get more details.
JON
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