On Friday I had my Hickman catheter replaced. I didn't have any soreness when I got my first one, but this time I was really sore both where the old one was and where the new one was put in. We got home about 5pm to find a message on our answering machine that Kaiser had left at 1:30am Friday. We had stayed overnight at City of Hope Thursday night because I had appointments Thursday and Friday so we weren't home when they called. The message said that one of the cultures that they had taken Monday night when we went to the emergency room was positive and that I should contact my doctor immediately. When I finally got a hold of my doctor's nurse, she contacted my doctor and I was told to go to the emergency room again. I asked the nurse if we could just go to urgent care in Lancaster and she said that would be fine. We went to Kaiser Lancaster, waited for two and a half hours to be seen and they gave me an I.V. of antibiotics and were told that we still had to go to the emergency room at Panorama City. We didn't leave Lancaster until 11pm, went to Pan City and spent hours there only to be told that I was OK and could go home. We left Pan City at 4am and went home two very tired people. We realize that when we need to go to urgent care or the emergency room it will take a lot of time, and it sure did!!! LOL!!! The soreness in my chest on Saturday is less, but it still hurts quite a lot. We go to City of Hope on Monday to begin chemo for my bone marrow transplant, and although I am anxious to get things moving I still have reservations and hope everything goes well. Please continue praying, I can't get thru this without you all!!! God bless.
Ernie
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
April 11
Hello to everyone reading this blog!!! I have been enjoying myself while out of the hospital. It sure feels good to relax at home, but we have taken some trips as well. Deb and I and Jim and Joan took a trip on our motorcyles. We left and made our decision of where to stay the next night that morning and it felt good. We would like to take a much longer trip that way too, just going wherever we feel like going! My daughter Dana and her family drove out from Denver so I could see her kids because I didn't get to play with them last time they were out at Christmas and it was really great to see them. They usually fly because it's such a long drive (15 hours) but they drove because her kids seem to get sick right after flying (catching colds and the flu). Deb and I have taken that drive and it seems very long so I really want to thank Dana and Dave for doing that for me!! It really wore me out playing with the grandkids but it was sure worth it!!!
I am definitely going in to the hospital (City of Hope) on Monday April 16th. I have had many tests this week and on Friday I have to have my Hickman catheter replaced because they can't withdraw blood from it anymore. I had a fever on Monday and had to go to the emergency room at Kaiser Pan City. We got there at 6:30pm and left at midnight. They didn't find out why I got the fever but gave me some anitbiotics. The tough part was that we had to get up at 5:30am the next moring to be down at Kaiser Sunset. We were pretty tired that day! When I come home from my transplant I can't have animals in the house and we couldn't find anyone to take our cat so Dana took the cat until we move to Denver. Good luck Dana!!! LOL!!! My brother has gone thru all his testing and everything looks very good for him to be my donor. He sure is stepping up to the plate for me and I really appreciate him helping me like this. He has to give himself shots for a few days before they take the stemcells and he is really good about it. He actually already gave himself a practice shot so he knows what it's like. Yea Dan!!! He will have to sit in a chair and they put needles into both arms with tubes coming out of them. His blood will come out of one arm and go into a machine that collects his stemcells and then the blood goes back into his other arm. They say the process takes about 5 to 6 hours and that he might have to do it for 2 to 3 days, but usually it's just one day. This will be on April 24th. The next day they will hang his stemcells over me and they will go into me just like a blood transfusion, it just drips into my I.V., and I don't know how long it takes. Blood transfusions take 2 to 3 hours to go into me so I expect the same amount of time for the stemcells but I'm just not sure. I will already have had 6 days of chemo to prepare my body to accept his stemcells. There might be side effects with the chemo so we'll have to deal with that, but there might also be a rejection factor. With bone marrow transplants my organs might not readily accept his bone marrow (it's call graft vs. host disease) and the doctors will have to stay on top of it to make sure my body accepts his marrow. This is what will keep me in the hospital longer than the one month they are expecting. Thank you all so much for praying for me and encouraging me. It has meant so much to know that so many are doing this and I hope I do much better at communicating my encouragement to others who are going thru things like this. I know pretty much everyone who is reading this is going thru some sort of trial or difficulty in their life right now, so keep your spirits up and keep putting one foot in front of the other if its that bad for you, because no matter what we are going thru, if we perservere, if we just keep on fighting, we will get thru it one way or the other. I know when I've experienced bad times in my life, there were always good times that followed, so hang on to that as well. We spend low times in the valleys, but we also spend great times on the mountain tops too!!! God bless you all,
Ernie
I am definitely going in to the hospital (City of Hope) on Monday April 16th. I have had many tests this week and on Friday I have to have my Hickman catheter replaced because they can't withdraw blood from it anymore. I had a fever on Monday and had to go to the emergency room at Kaiser Pan City. We got there at 6:30pm and left at midnight. They didn't find out why I got the fever but gave me some anitbiotics. The tough part was that we had to get up at 5:30am the next moring to be down at Kaiser Sunset. We were pretty tired that day! When I come home from my transplant I can't have animals in the house and we couldn't find anyone to take our cat so Dana took the cat until we move to Denver. Good luck Dana!!! LOL!!! My brother has gone thru all his testing and everything looks very good for him to be my donor. He sure is stepping up to the plate for me and I really appreciate him helping me like this. He has to give himself shots for a few days before they take the stemcells and he is really good about it. He actually already gave himself a practice shot so he knows what it's like. Yea Dan!!! He will have to sit in a chair and they put needles into both arms with tubes coming out of them. His blood will come out of one arm and go into a machine that collects his stemcells and then the blood goes back into his other arm. They say the process takes about 5 to 6 hours and that he might have to do it for 2 to 3 days, but usually it's just one day. This will be on April 24th. The next day they will hang his stemcells over me and they will go into me just like a blood transfusion, it just drips into my I.V., and I don't know how long it takes. Blood transfusions take 2 to 3 hours to go into me so I expect the same amount of time for the stemcells but I'm just not sure. I will already have had 6 days of chemo to prepare my body to accept his stemcells. There might be side effects with the chemo so we'll have to deal with that, but there might also be a rejection factor. With bone marrow transplants my organs might not readily accept his bone marrow (it's call graft vs. host disease) and the doctors will have to stay on top of it to make sure my body accepts his marrow. This is what will keep me in the hospital longer than the one month they are expecting. Thank you all so much for praying for me and encouraging me. It has meant so much to know that so many are doing this and I hope I do much better at communicating my encouragement to others who are going thru things like this. I know pretty much everyone who is reading this is going thru some sort of trial or difficulty in their life right now, so keep your spirits up and keep putting one foot in front of the other if its that bad for you, because no matter what we are going thru, if we perservere, if we just keep on fighting, we will get thru it one way or the other. I know when I've experienced bad times in my life, there were always good times that followed, so hang on to that as well. We spend low times in the valleys, but we also spend great times on the mountain tops too!!! God bless you all,
Ernie
Friday, March 30, 2007
Mar 30
Hi Everyone,
Just wanted to update you on what's happening. I had a blood gas test last Tuesday and have a heart test next Monday. There are several other tests that must be done before I get my bone marrow transplant. My brother Dan (my donor) will be having tests done as well. They are tentatively putting me back in the hospital (City of Hope) in about 25 days but that could change by a week or so. That's about all as far as my condition goes, but I'd like you to add someone to your prayers for the next little while. Our friends, Mike and Kim are adopting a little girl from China but she is very sick. Her name is Chen-Chen and her liver is failing. They are bringing her here early to do a liver transplant but they say the trip will be very hard on her, so please pray that she will make it here and get the transplant and that everything will go well for little Chen-Chen. Hi "Ernie's Angels"!!!
Thank you so much for praying for me and for little Chen-Chen. God bless you all.
Ernie
Just wanted to update you on what's happening. I had a blood gas test last Tuesday and have a heart test next Monday. There are several other tests that must be done before I get my bone marrow transplant. My brother Dan (my donor) will be having tests done as well. They are tentatively putting me back in the hospital (City of Hope) in about 25 days but that could change by a week or so. That's about all as far as my condition goes, but I'd like you to add someone to your prayers for the next little while. Our friends, Mike and Kim are adopting a little girl from China but she is very sick. Her name is Chen-Chen and her liver is failing. They are bringing her here early to do a liver transplant but they say the trip will be very hard on her, so please pray that she will make it here and get the transplant and that everything will go well for little Chen-Chen. Hi "Ernie's Angels"!!!
Thank you so much for praying for me and for little Chen-Chen. God bless you all.
Ernie
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Mar 20
Not too much to say today but Susie Lydon sent me the following and I'm going to do it. Hope you all will too!!! I tried to check it out on Snopes.com but they didn't have anything on it, but it's a great idea anyway!!!
Someone has said if Christians really understood the full extent of the power we have available through prayer, we might be speechless. (And personally I believe that!) Did you know that during W.W.II there was an adviser to Churchill who organized a group of people who dropped what they were doing every day at a prescribed hour for one minute to collectively pray for the safety of England , its people and peace?There is now a group of people organizing the same thing here in America .If you would like to participate: Every evening at 9:00 pm Eastern Time (8:00 PM Central) (7:00 PM Mountain) (6:00 PM Pacific), stop whatever you are doing and spend one minute praying for the safety of the United States , our troops, our citizens, and for a return to a Godly nation. If you know anyone else who would like to participate, please pass this along.Our prayers are the most powerful asset we have.PLEASE FORWARD TO YOUR BELIEVING FRIENDS!
Someone has said if Christians really understood the full extent of the power we have available through prayer, we might be speechless. (And personally I believe that!) Did you know that during W.W.II there was an adviser to Churchill who organized a group of people who dropped what they were doing every day at a prescribed hour for one minute to collectively pray for the safety of England , its people and peace?There is now a group of people organizing the same thing here in America .If you would like to participate: Every evening at 9:00 pm Eastern Time (8:00 PM Central) (7:00 PM Mountain) (6:00 PM Pacific), stop whatever you are doing and spend one minute praying for the safety of the United States , our troops, our citizens, and for a return to a Godly nation. If you know anyone else who would like to participate, please pass this along.Our prayers are the most powerful asset we have.PLEASE FORWARD TO YOUR BELIEVING FRIENDS!
Monday, March 19, 2007
Mar 19
I had a bone marrow biopsy on Mar 12 to check for 2 things. One was to see if the leukemia had come back, and it hasn't! The other was to see if I indeed had the bone marrow disease called Myelodysplasia, and the results of this aren't in yet. I had some great news this morning! The doctor told me that my sister Carol and my brother Dan both match me for my bone marrow transplant! This makes the chance of rejection much smaller so there is a greater chance that I will be able to use their stem cells to replace my bone marrow cells. They are leaning toward using my brother's for several reasons, most of all because if the donor is a female and the recipient is a male there is a greater chance of rejection. When I heard the news my whole body felt so much relief I could hardly keep my emotions still for awhile. My sister Mary was actually disappointed when she heard that she didn't match and I found out that they were each hoping it would be them who matched me. Thank you Mary, Carol and Dan! I love you guys! Deb and I took off after my appointment last Monday and went to Phoenix to see the Angels play a spring training baseball game. It was hot that day and we had a great time! We then went to Laughlin and spent a few days there and we left some of our money there for them to hold for us! LOL! We got to visit my son's family in Las Vegas and had a lot of fun playing with our grandkids. We won't know much more until the end of this week and I'll let you all know more then.
Friday, March 9, 2007
Mar 8
I called the bone marrow doctor today and he told me that since my white counts were down a little in May of 2006, they think that I have a disease of the bone marrow (can't spell it!) that developed into my leukemia. They believe this is why my counts are still not back to normal and so they think the best thing to do now is a bone marrow transplant using a donor. My brother and sisters have all taken the test and now we are waiting for their results, which won't come back until about March 20th. Please pray that my brother or sisters match me and that the bone marrow transplant will go well.
IN HIS HANDS,
Ernie
IN HIS HANDS,
Ernie
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Mar 6
I went to see the bone marrow transplant doctor today at Kaiser Sunset. It turns out that my brother and sisters should have had their tests two weeks ago so he could see if they were a match for me. Now we have to wait two more weeks for these results. This means that I won't be going back into the hospital til then which is good, but I hope the wait doesn't jeopardize my end results. The doctor didn't seem worried though. I am still not back to normal as far as my strength goes, I still feel light-headed when going up stairs. My blood counts still aren't back to normal either and they were by this time last session, but the doctor didn't seem worried about this either. I went to Desert Christian School last Friday and met "Ernie's Angels"!!! They did a presentation using sign language which was really beautiful, and I got to go to their classroom and meet them. They had many questions, great questions, and we had a great time together! Thank you again "Ernie's Angels" for letting me come to meet you all, and thank you so much for your prayers and all your support. God bless you all!
IN HIS HANDS,
Ernie
IN HIS HANDS,
Ernie
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