Loungin'

Shawna is going to have a rough schedule coming up, so since it's the weekend I sent her home to sleep in her own bed while she can. We spoke with everyone today and it sounds like the process to collect Kelby's stem cells for the transplant will begin probably midweek this coming week. The logistics of it have yet to be figured out, but hopefully what will happen is Shawna will deliver Kelby's blood sample to a different hospital in Seattle, they'll determine if Kelby's cells are ready for harvest, and then let Shawna know. That will happen each morning until Kelby's counts are just right. Once they're at the proper levels then Shawna will take Kelby to that hospital for a 6-8 hour process each day where they'll harvest the stem cells via her cathetar until they've collected enough. That whole process will probably take around a couple weeks of visits and stays at the hospital every day. Shawna will be doing a lot of driving. Shortly following that process they'll perform surgery to remove the mass in Kelby's belly. The coming weeks are going to be even more stressful than the routine chemo has been, especially on Shawna who is dealing with all of this 6 months pregnant. Make sure you all say an extra little prayer for her. You're all so great though, that I know that I don't even need to tell you that :) For now Kelby and I are hanging out in the hospital. She's in pretty rough shape, and still fighting a fever that seems to come and go. Since she has basically no immune system she's probably going to have to wait for her white blood count to come up before she can kick this cold that is keeping her down. I'm just laying here watching TV in the pull out chair and she's laying next to me. She seems to be fine as long as she gets to lay next to me and I mess with her. Maybe she'll have to sleep next to me in the chair tonight. I just gave her some tylenol a few mintues ago so she seems to be perking up a little. She even just saw some dogs on a commercial and pointed them out as "puppy" who say "yeow" but then ammended that statement to be "vuff vuff" when I pointed out her error. I think she knows that puppies don't make kitty sounds, but she just does that to tease me. She got a trasfusion of packed red cells today, and a small transfusion of platelets so maybe after a night's sleep she'll feel a little better in the morning. We'll let you know of course ;) Mike