A Magical Christmas

Tony's work family gave us the biggest Christmas we've ever had. The boys were absolutely thrilled with the mountain of gifts from so many members of his work teams. It's hard to put into words how grateful we are for all of them. His entire work family had been so supportive through this entire endeavor. 

Jack has been asking for a hoverboard for years, and his wish finally came true. Cody got a real guitar in his actual size, and Kevin got both Gabby's Dollhouse, and Bluey's house. He spent the majority of the day playing with the two houses. Not pictured are the gifts for Tony and I (I always forget to take pictures of us adults). Tony was able to get new controllers and a headset for his Xbox, and I got a Apple Watch SE that I am absolutely thrilled about.

Transplant update

Tony's been doing really well on this round of chemo. His counts have stayed up, and we've been able to see family for Christmas. 

We got an update on his Transplant. They are looking at moving forward with it at the end of January. Right now, their guess is January 24th for checking into the hospital to start the chemo. The transplant will happen around 5 days later. He'll be in the hospital for about 3 weeks, and then he'll move to some hospital housing for up to 3 months. His parents and I will take turns staying with him during that time, and the boys will be able to visit during the day as long as they are not sick. 

After day 100, they will do 2-3 rounds of the same chemo he's been doing now, just to ensure the cancer is completely gone. He'll be on an immune suppression drug for at least 6 months, but should be able to start feeling normal by the 9 month mark. 

The next 6 months are going to be especially difficult for Tony and for our family, so we would appreciate all the prayers and words of encouragement. I know we've been saying that for nearly a year now, but we really do appreciate all the love and support we are constantly receiving. Thank you!

Another Round

 Tony started another round of chemo on Thursday. He will have an infusion every day for 7 days. Then he'll take the oral chemo for another 7 days after his infusions are over. (The last round he had to take for a total of 21 days, so he's happy it's shorter this time). 

This round has been much easier on his body than the last round, but it is still making him quite tired, and it took us a couple days to figure out the best way to keep the diarrhea under control. 

This entire round of chemo will be done outpatient, and they've been kind enough to schedule any weekday infusions at the Farmington clinic so we don't have to drive as far. Today and tomorrow's infusion are in Salt Lake City. 

We will meet with the transplant team on Monday after his infusion to discuss next steps. We're hoping this will be the last round of chemo before the transplant. 

Hopefully we will have a very long update post on Monday with details from that meeting. 

Match Found!

 We went down to Huntsman today for Tony to start his next round of chemo. His blood counts haven't come up to a safe range for starting the chemo so they are putting it off for one more week. He is now scheduled to start next Monday. He'll finish this round of chemo on January 2nd if everything goes as planned. 

But we did get a bit of good news today. The bone marrow transplant team has found him a full match on the Be The Match registry and he has agreed to donate. He is on standby and waiting for the transplant dates to be set. This is a huge step in the process so we are grateful for him and his willingness to donate. 

Schedule update

 Tony had an appointment with his Oncologist today. They are letting his counts come up this week, and then starting another round of chemo next Monday. It's the same chemo regimen he just completed on Saturday. But because most his blood isn't made up of cancer cells anymore, it shouldn't be near as severe. They said they usually do 2-3 rounds of this regimen before doing the transplant, so his transplant will either be beginning of January or beginning of February. They are still searching the registry for a full match. But if they can't find a full match, they will move forward with Tony's brother Brad who is a half match. Thank you for all your continued thoughts and prayers. We still have a long road ahead of us so we will certainly need them. 

A Remissive State

 We went down to Huntsman yesterday morning for a 7:30 appointment. They drew his labs and found out he needed red blood cells. So he watched a World Cup game on his phone while they did the infusion. (Red blood cells take about an hour and a half. Platelets take about 45 min). 

Soon after we got home, Tony's main oncologist gave us a call and let us know he'd received the preliminary results from the biopsy and it showed no cancer cells. So he has been given the ok to stop the oral chemo. We'll find out on Monday what the next steps are, but on the phone it sounded like they'll do another consolidation chemo before we get to the transplant. Thank you all for the thoughts and prayers. 

Waiting on Results

 Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

We just had a quiet Thanksgiving at home since Tony's blood counts are still low. He spent most the day watching world cup games. They've told him he has to continue taking the oral chemo until we get results back from the bone marrow biopsy. His biopsy was done yesterday. They also did a platelet infusion. He talked to another nurse about his mouth pain and they gave him a mouthwash with lidocaine in it and it has been helping him. But we're pretty sure it should heal up once his white count comes back up. But that won't happen until he stops the oral chemo. So we're hoping for results soon. Tony has an early appointment tomorrow with a possible infusion. Then, we meet with the doctors on Monday to talk about any results that come in and then hopefully we will know next steps.