It’s time to go home!!!

After 23 days here, Mike is going home tonight to sleep in his own bed :)

There have been some good days here at the hospital, and there have been some hard days.  But now we can look forward!

Despite 5 days of chemo and 8 days of having no white blood cells, this transplant went as we expected — and probably even better.  He never got a serious infection.  He never got too sick.  His stem cells did their thing.  Jonathan Alter called.  And most importantly of all: Mike didn’t lose his sense of humor, even when he shit on his slippers.

Many people have asked us “How do you know if it worked?” or “When will they say he’s okay?” but that’s not quite the nature of the procedure.  It’s important to remember that he was in remission when he came in here three weeks ago.  A stem cell transplant decreases one’s chance of recurrence of the lymphoma.  In Mike’s case, this transplant was a “curative therapy” — meaning that it will hopefully forever prevent a recurrence.  So there’s no definitive day when a doctor will tell us “congrats!”  It’s more like a continual monitoring process of scans and bloodwork.

Over the next few weeks, he’ll still be on many medications and will be working to get stronger every day.  He’ll have many appointments to closely monitor to him, but over time he’ll graduate to 3 month checkups, 6 month checkups, and then someday, one year checkups.  We look forward to that, but in the meantime, we’re quite happy with how he’s doing :)

Some more pictures from outside!  Just what you were hoping for.

Today marks 3 weeks since Big Mike was admitted to the 6th floor of Lerner Tower.

We HOPE HOPE HOPE that he’ll be released tomorrow, no later than Wednesday.  Getting out of here after 3 weeks and 1 day is still very good.  We are all anxious for him to come home.  His overall health is very good, but the doctors want to be sure that all of his electrolyte levels are definitely stable before they release him.

But in exciting news, he is no longer attached to an IV pole!  Free!  He is taking potassium and magnesium pills now, and drinking all the liquids he needs.

You can be sure that we’ll be posting as soon as we know when he’s going home — with pictures!  Thanks to everyone who is reading the blog!

Hello friends and family,

Apologies for the lack of posting over the weekend.  I made a quick trip to Chicago for a wedding!  But I’m back now, and found the patient in the same good state I left him in.

His appetite remains good, and his counts are strong.  Still waiting on that Potassium level to stabilize.

We were just outside for about an hour, for the fourth day in a row.  It’s a nice night and it’s good to be outside the confines of the room.  He’s got the Oregon State orange and black outfit on again.

Looks like a release date of Tuesday, but mayyyyybe tomorrow.  Tomorrow marks three weeks.  He’s ready to go home!

As you can see from the pictures, Mike was untethered and allowed outside for the second day in a row!

Things continue to go well.  Today he had a Dave’s Cosmic sub (tuna) and has good energy.

While we originally thought he could be released as early as today, his low potassium  and magnesium levels will keep him here through the weekend.  The amount of potassium and magnesium that he currently requires means that he still needs an IV.  In a few days though, he’ll need less and will be able to take pills at home.

A little taste of freedom: a walk outside