I know it's been a while since I've posted again, but I haven't felt much like talking about myself lately (I’ll get into that later). I'm sitting in the hotel room in St. Louis tonight having received the first stem cell growth factor injection. The day started with lab work at 8:15, then a growth factor injection at 9:00, and an evaluation for the stem cell harvest at 1:30. Everything went fine and no side effects from the injection. The most common side effects are pain and swelling at the injection site and bone pain. Like I said nothing so far, but again, they say the cumulative effects are what gets most people. I'll get growth factor injections Saturday and Sunday, then on Monday, I have lab work at 7:15; get an injection at 8:00; have a catheter placed in my chest at 11:00; then get another type of injection at 4:45. Tuesday starts the harvest portion and may need to continue throughout the week depending on how many cells they get. I'll get more into detail on that as the week progresses.

The reason I hadn't blogged this past week was that Friday the 4th, my dad was admitted to the hospital, and we were there with him most days until late. He hadn't been eating or drinking much for several weeks and was losing strength, then the 4th he lost almost any strength he had remaining and one of his doctors recommended he be admitted for monitoring. To make a week-long story as short as possible, he’s been declining steadily and as we left town for St. Louis last night, was put under hospice care in the hospital because they don’t think he could withstand the move home or to a facility. We don’t expect him to make it much longer and it was extremely difficult having to leave knowing we probably wouldn’t see him again, but my condition requires we not delay treatment. I hated having to leave my family; not that they can’t handle anything that comes up, but families are supposed to be together during situations like this.

I’ll keep you posted on both fronts as information comes available. I’m still positive about my treatment. As we left the evaluation session for the transplant, I told Tida that I was even more sure I would come through that portion without any problems than I was before we went in, so no worries!