Another Happy Follow Up Appointment

12/24/08 – I celebrated Christmas Eve with family, without infections. Yeah! I had a great time .

12/25/08 - I celebrated Christmas Day at home. Double Yeah! No Infection. Another great day with family.

God has been good to me allowing me to get to spend Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas day out of the hospital without infections.

12/26/08 – I had a follow up appointment at Hackensack Hospital. All my blood counts look great. My white blood cell count is up to 9.9 (this is a great number).

I have another follow up appointment of Monday, December 29th.

My next treatment (treatment 6/cycle 3B) is scheduled for January 5th. If all goes well with my follow up scans this should be my last round of chemo.

More to come…


http://mantlecell.blogspot.com/

A Merry Follow Up Appointment

12/23/08 – I had a follow up appointment today. So far I am fever and infection free. My blood counts were good except for the fact that my white blood counts are low (.6). This, of course, is expected. I will just need to be careful until they come back up. Dr. Feldman said I should not isolate myself through the holiday season, just be careful and follow common sense.

I also had a chemo push today in the cancer clinic. It went well. I sat next to a wonderful elderly woman who is a heart transplant survivor and battling cancer. She seemed very wise and had much advice to offer. Her words that really stuck to me were:
“You can not control what is dealt to you; you can only control how you deal with it”.These are words that we all can live by everyday. I am glad I had the opportunity to spend a couple of hours with this wise woman.

I am feeling well since I have come home from the hospital. I am hoping that I stay this way for the next couple of days.

I would like to take this time to wish everyone a
Very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy New Year.
Here is one of my favorite contemporary Christmas Carols:

Manger Throne
by Third Day

What kind of king would leave His throne
In heaven to make this earth His home
While men seek fame and great renowned
In loneliness, our king comes down

Jesus, Jesus precious one
How we thank You that You’ve come
Jesus, Jesus precious one
A manger throne for God’s own Son

You left the sound of angels praise
To come for men with unkind ways
And by this baby’s helplessness
The power of nations is laid to rest

Jesus, Jesus precious one
How we thank You that You’ve come
Jesus, Jesus precious one
A manger throne for God’s own Son

What kind of king would come so small
From glory to a humble stall
That dirty manger is my heart too
I’ll make it a royal throne for you

Jesus, Jesus precious one
How we thank You that You’ve come
Jesus, Jesus precious one
How we thank You that You’ve come
A manger throne for God’s own Son
My heart is a throne for God’s own Son
A manger throne for God’s own Son
My heart is a throne for God’s own Son
My heart is a throne for God’s own Son

More to come…


http://mantlecell.blogspot.com/

Home from Treatment 5/Cycle 3A

12/13/08 through 12/16/08 – I received my Cycle 3A cycle treatment. All seemed to go well. I was released about 9:30 PM on 12/16/08. We did get home late but it is sure great to be home.

12/18/08 – I have a follow up appointment to check by blood counts. I am hoping we are headed it the direction of no infections. So far I am feeling well.

More to come…

http://mantlecell.blogspot.com/

Remission Accomplished

12/12/08 –I had an appointment today to check my blood counts, review my scans and begin the out patient treatment of my next chemo treatment (treatment 5/Cycle 3A). This was a very good day... I received great news. I am now considered to be in full remission and my tumors have again shrunk significantly. Dr. Goy was thrilled to give us this wonderful information. His go forward plan for me will be to have me scanned after treatment 6/cycle 3B and if the results continue to be excellent he will stop my treatments there being he would have achieved his goals. If my treatments stay on schedule treatment 6/cycle 3B should begin early January. In addition, Dr Goy expects that I will be able to get through treatments 5 and 6 without getting infections.

I know I still have 2 more treatments to go through but I want to thank everyone for all the prayers and support I have received from you. I truly believe that I would not have made it this far without my faith and your prayers and support.

I will be going into the hospital tomorrow for the inpatient portion of treatment 5/cycle 3A. The plan is for me to be in the hospital 12/13 through 12/16.

More to come…


http://mantlecell.blogspot.com/

Scans

12/3/08 – I go for my CT and PET scans today. I have an appointment scheduled for December 12th to review the results. These scans will show how effective my treatments have been.

http://mantlecell.blogspot.com/