Blessings Along the Way

Had a great day with John and Lindsay today.  They’ve just been married a few month and it so heartwarming to see them starting their life together, along with the excitement of expecting their 1^st baby!   Lindsay’s a loving wife and she going to be a great mom.  Isn’t that what all moms’ pray for, for their sons? – Thank you Jesus!

Unexpected Travel

September 29^th

I’m busy packing to take a trip I never had personally planned or even thought about taking in my life or even imagined.   But it’s a trip I need to take nonetheless. If the medical treatment I receive during this trip is successful then there will be a much better chance I’ll have more trips in my future I’ll be able to look forward to. 

While I am on this trip I decided to attempt to keep a journal.  If you read the first post by my daughter Ann, she explained what caused me to take this journey.  You will also see that she is a real writer.   Her mom, on the other hand, is not.  So I ask for your mercy when it comes to my writing skills.  :)

I am scheduled to be at the Colorado Blood Cancer Institute, CBCI, in Denver CO, on Thursday, October 4^th at 8:30 a.m.   Matt and I decided to drive there instead of flying.  This way we would not need to rent a car as my stay in Denver could last as long as two months.  Plus my insurance did not cover car rental and it’s pretty pricey when you rent a car for a month or two.  The other pro of driving instead of flying was I was able to stop and see my son, John and my daughter n law, Lindsay, on the way out. 

The trip to Denver will take 2 days of driving.  After packing up the car and tying up loose ends in the house we left today, Saturday, around noon (our originally plan was to leave at 8:00 a.m. lol) to head up to Sacramento so we could spend the weekend with John and then planned to leave his house on Tuesday morning to get to Denver by Wednesday afternoon. We arrived at John’s around 6:30 p.m.  Lindsay made us a nice dinner, spent some time catching up with them and then called it a night.  

Pilgrimage to Denver

 September 30th 2012

Her fingers turned blue. Then red. Then white. Hmm. Her legs were not working and the heaviness and difficulty in moving her body was hard to articulate. She thought, "Something is not right here." Her mouth was always dry, she couldn't eat, eyes burned, swallowing was strange, fatigue was crippling, and she radiated heat that made her hot to the touch and miserable, a picture of suffering. Still, we all thought surely it would pass.

It didn't pass. It grew worse quickly. The doctors finally diagnosed Scleroderma . . . 

Now, after months of appointments and tests, internal organ involvement of her disease, insurance appeals and many tears and prayers, Mom is on her way to the Colorado Blood Cancer Institute in Denver to participate in a Blood and Marrow Transplant Program. There she will be treated by the best physicians in the field in an attempt to help her and also learn more about Scleroderma and a possible cure. 

We have no promises that this will work and the risks are high. First they will stimulate her system to produce more stem cells for extraction from her bone marrow. After they extract the cells and store them, they will deplete her immune system in an effort to kill the bad cells, much like a cancer patient, with high dose immunosuppressant chemotherapy. In the final step they will replace the cells they extracted in the hope that they will grow in number and kick start a whole new immune system, one free from Scleroderma. If all goes well, we hope to see her discharged home by December 3rd. The recovery will take many more months after that as her immune system continues to strengthen. 

Mom wanted to start this blog to keep us all updated on her progress and thoughts as she takes this very scary journey. Please check in and leave comments as she (or I) post updates.  She is nervous and overwhelmed but brave. And we are, all of us, hopeful . . . reaching for His cloak. 

Matt 9:20-22, 14:34-36

" . . . and all who touched him were healed." 

- Ann