Lovebuch family happenings

Been a bit of a gap, but I’m now at day +14 post transplant. So far there has be no official record of engraftment, which means I’m still at 0 neutrophils. However, I feel that I am close: my throat pain has gotten better, which the only way to account for that is that some white cells have been made.  They just got recruited to the trouble areas and aren’t floating around the bloodstream to be picked up in a blood draw. The saying around here is that the patient often gets a few days heads up before when the labs show engraftment because the mouth sores start to feel a little better. As far as my issues. I feel pretty pleased, nothing I haven’t experienced before, nothing crazy, nothing to go down to the ICU. No need for opiates to cover pain.  I did have a GI bleed that resulted in a scope. But the scope was productive and the gastrointerologists were able to apply a clip to an ulcer in my upper stomach that was oozing and continuing to cause a source of blood to be in my gut—an

Our favorite christmas cactus, Alfred, is really a thanksgiving cactus. His progeny appear to be on the same bloom schedule even though they live in different rooms. Alpen has gotten his mitts on two blooms so far. Yesterday Alpen rolled over from back to tummy for this first time! Anyway, get your own blog Alpen am I right?! This blog is about Derek! With Derek at the hospital, I'm on my best behavior with regard to the plants - that means no watering! Alfie and his son in the beginning of bloom season Alfie and my son enjoying the blooms Two bros, broin' it up!

Yesterday I got my new immune system! As promised, they arrived around 4pm. Holding the cell-bag in my hand was a great experience. They didn’t look like much—like a watered down tomato soup—but they were sure important and represented so much. I was surrounded by family, with my parents, Briana, Peggy (Briana’s mom), and Alpen. It was nice to share this momentous and symbolic occasion with them. The cells had been filtered out of my donors blood some 16 hours previous, put on ice, and hand-couriered from Europe to Seattle. A logistical triumph indeed. Fresh cells meant no issues with any frozen preservatives so I was happy about that.  Like other patients I have talked to or read about, I felt a huge hit of gratitude for my donor. Just goes to show that even in a time when political borders are tightening-up, the human-human bond remains strong and people are out there willing to help. For me it meant a stranger in Germany went out of her way to jump through some hoops, get a tempora

I guess I got a lil inspired by breezy's post so here is an adapted version of what I wrote up in my journal: The TBI was different than I thought. I stand what looks like a modified standing closet from ikea. They put a towel beneath my feet. A large bicycle seat goes between my legs. But I only sit on it 5% of the time when its inbetween the 3-minute beam segments. In front of me goes a hard plastic board with two tin and candium blocks to protect my lungs. They didn’t cover my whole lungs so I said “a little small aren’t they” and the nurse responded “There about twice as big as most peoples,” And then she explained that “we still want some radiation to get to the lungs, so just trying to block out some” and I’m standing there thinking. “I don’t think a leukemic cell is hiding in my lungs, could we go with full blocks please.”  They also make you take off underwear and socks, and I asked why socks, cause it seems like nbd if my feet get a miniscual amount less radiation. Th

Well it seems like we're due for an update here and I (breezy) am not going to let the perfect be the enemy of the good, so I'll keep this one short (the title is therefore a bit of a misnomer, but it's the best I could come up with).  We've continued to have a pretty good time getting out and about while D has still been feeling relatively good and counts have been high. Over the 3-day weekend we turned a friday visit that Alpen had with the occupational therapist (another story for another blog) into an outing around our old capitol hill stomping grounds, visiting friends and, most importantly, the coffee shop on the corner of our old apartment for some seasonal caffeinated beverages (I think you know what I'm talking about!). We visited with some friends Jay and Rach at their new house that's only a 15 minute walk from our house (woo hoo!) on two occasions, allowing Alpen to get pretty comfortable in the new digs (as shown below). On Saturday night we s