Transplant is scheduled.

Nathan goes in next Wednesday October 5th for a meeting with his stem cell doctor and will begin a series of scans and test to prepare for his transplant. He is scheduled to come to Houston on October 17th for the remainder of his test and then on the 18th he will go into the hospital to have his port put into his chest. He will be admitted into the hospital on October 19th. He will stay in the hospital doing one last dose of strong chemotherapy that will begin on the 20th and end around the 24th or 25th. His donor is a 20 year old male in another state, so the cells will be flown into MD Anderson around the 25th and he will receive the transplant on the 26th. After the 26th if everything goes as planned he will be in the hospital for 30 days if there is no complications. At that point he will be expected to be in Houston for no less that 100 more days. For several weeks he will have to make daily trips in for transfusions, labs, test, check ups and so forth. If there are no problems and his body does not reject the transplant he could come home some time around February 2012. It's hard to imagine all of this and to grasp all of this. We have not spend a day or night apart and it is going to be a struggle not being there every step of the way. With Nathan not working and me missing work when I am able to as well as me being here at home for Aedyn, it is going to be a struggle for us in so many ways. We feel blessed that he has this opportunity and has a person amazing enough to do this for a complete stranger to save his life, but it is still hard. We will miss Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and so much more. Please send lots of love and good thoughts and prayers Nathan's way he has a battle ahead of him and it is going to be hard on everyone but really hard on him and his body. It is hard to ask for help but when you are left with no choice you have to, so I am asking if anyone out there can help us through this time it is appreciated more than we can ever express. Nathan is completely unable to work and probably will not be able to for around a year after the transplant. I will be missing a great deal of work at the salon and will have hardly any income. On top of all of that we have medical expenses, my travel expenses to be able to be at the hospital with him, and our living expenses at home. If you can donate even a dollar it helps us. We need help or I don't know how we will make it through this. For those that judge the fact I am asking this, put yourself in our shoes it is a very scary and uncertain and stressful time for us and we are doing everything we can. The fact that Nathan has been working when he could over the past year as sick as he has been speaks volumes for his character. He is strong and a true fighter and he is an amazing, amazing man. Keep Nathan in your thoughts through the coming months please. I will update through the whole process for his friends and family to follow. I can not wait for the day we are back on our feet and Nathan can live his life finally, he has been though so much to only be 27. It will be an amazing thing for us to be in a good place to return to others the blessings given to us. Thank you to the amazing young man who is doing this for us its a shame it is anonymous!

Feeling like it's close to an end but it's really just the beginning of something else!

So since I last wrote Nathan has had another round of chemotherapy and we met with the Dr. on Tuesday of this week. He has chemotherapy again on Monday morning. The doctors are continuing the treatment until everything is set up and ready to go for him to go into the hospital for his transplant. He was approved for the transplant so we finally have some peace as far as not stressing about what we would do if he had not been. It's kind of strange how you want to feel happy about the coming remission but at the same time you dread what is ahead. Nathan has been through the transplant process once before, and it was very hard for him, but this time will be much different, and much much harder. Due to the fact that he has a donor this time instead of his own stem cells and the donor is not related to him it makes it a great deal more complicated. Nathan will be in the hospital for a lengthy amount of time and then have to stay close to the hospital until he is in the clear from his transplant. I have been reading up on GVHD, the disease he could develop from the transplant. It scares me so much to know that we have to sit and wait to see if his body can handle this and if his body can not then it could kill him. That is the reality of the situation. Hard to know what to do because if he does not do the transplant his cancer will most likely come back and the doctors say he will be out of options. This is a chance to cure him , prolong his life, save him, if it works. The last transplant was successful he had five years of remission, so I am holding on to hope and faith that this will go smoothly for him. If you are interested in Graft-vs-Host disease I could post lots of links, but easiest way is just google it there is tons of info on the disease, what causes it, as well as treatment of it, risks, and statistics of survivors. Please keep Nathan in your thoughts. He still has a long road ahead that is not going to be easy. I never realized how much of you life is affected by an illness such as cancer. It takes over EVERY aspect of it. It is hard to plan things and hard to spend time just living and being happy because you have to worry about the things going on, the things ahead, finances, being apart from people, the pain, the sickness. It puts a strain on everything and it is the hardest thing I have ever been through and I am not the one who is sick. So unfair to watch an amazing, pure, beautiful person who is so amazing and loving and full of life suffer through this war on cancer!!! On a positive note Nathan had two weeks off from treatment and it has been awesome. He has been to Aedyn's baseball practices, able to go out and eat, able to go in the living room and watch TV, eat dinner with Aedyn and I , basically everything except lay in bed. It's amazing the simple silly things we do day in and day out that we take for granted. Live your life and love every second of it because all the petty crappy things we complain about daily do not mean anything at all!!!!