A Typical Atypical Night (T+11)

I arrive at the hospital about 7:30 p.m.  It is my first night back after a week of being home with a cold. I’m happy to see my boy. Derek is getting a different look now – a transplant look. His eyebrows and eyelashes are

Transplant - Day 0 (September 10, 2014)

The little bag of donor stem cells came a very long way to get here.

It's just after 1:00 a.m.

Hooking it up to Derek's port.

Adjusting the rate. It didn't go through the pump. It was gravity fed and only took about 30 minutes

T - 2 or maybe 3 (Sunday, September 7)

T-2 or maybe 3 days and counting. Because Derek's new graft stem cells are coming from Europe, they will take a while to get here, so we are not sure if Derek will get them on September 9 or 10. But tomorrow, somewhere in Europe, the donor will go to

T - 5 Days and Counting (Thursday, September 4, 2014)

Today is T - 5 days and counting. In preparation for stem cell transplant, they count down just like a rocket launch, but instead of hours and minutes, they use days. Each day has specific things that must be done and medications that must be given in order to be ready. It has been a grueling three weeks to get to this point.


We found out today that Derek's stem cell donor is

Stem Cell Transplant Excitement?

“Your son is going to have a stem cell transplant and they have a donor? That is so great! You must be so excited!” someone said to me.

It is a wonderful thing that transplant is an option for him and that they have found a good donor. We are hopeful. But excited? No. I am not excited. Horrified would be a better term to describe my emotions. If it were a new heart or new lungs or a kidney, there might be reason to feel excited. But stem cell transplant is different. It is

Leukemia Relapse! – How it happened

On Wednesday, June 11, we went up to the mountains for a family retreat. Thursday, all was normal. Derek played freeze tag and was active and energetic. Mid day on Thursday, I learned via text message that the son of a friend of mine had relapsed his leukemia. I was shocked and saddened, imagining what it must be like to face such news. 

Friday morning, June 13, Derek woke up saying his neck hurt a lot. I thought perhaps he had slept wrong in the motor home or was sore from playing tag the evening before. It hurt badly enough that he wanted Tylenol, which I gave him after breakfast. It did not seem to help much and the pain continued throughout the day. After lunch I gave him more Tylenol and again it didn’t seem to do much. He was not interested in playing tag and sat with me on the sidelines. I massaged it gently, but it didn’t seem to help.

During the Friday evening meeting, Derek felt a little warm, and by the end of the meeting, it was quite obvious he was running a fever.  We went to the motor home and took his temperature. It was 101.2. We were concerned it could be viral meningitis, and I called Derek’s doctor. She said to bring him in right away. So I collected our things and