Tomorrow

Looks like tomorrow is “the day”. Jake will go into surgery first thing in the morning to place the catheter for his Stem Cell Harvest and as soon as he is out of recovery, they will hook him up to the machines and begin.  They’ve been tracking his counts, looking for special cells called CD34 cells.  These are the cells they will “harvest” so they can put them back into his body in a couple of months in order to rebuild his immune system for the transplant process.  He’s been slow to build these cells and they’ve been tracking them for the past week so they can catch them when they hit a certain level as there is a very small window that the cells hit their highest level, then they begin to drop.  They feel that Wednesday and Thursday will be “the window” for his best shot to capture as many of these cells as they can – they need millions. He’s ready to go.  His port is already accessed – it consists of a a 3/4″ needle in his chest and 6″ tube hanging and taped carefully.  Our prayer is that everything goes smoothly, that there are no complications, that they can get as many cells as possible in the shortest amount of time.  If they could get them all in one day – that would be our prayer. Most kids take two days, some longer.  They will hook him up until they get what they need.  They try to get enough for the first Stem Cell Transplant, plus extra for a future transplant procedure, just in case.  Unfortunately the relapse rate for Jake’s cancer is high and this is a precaution that they take… sadly, many more children than I’d like to say relapse. This reminds me… If you haven’t been on here in a couple of days, I ask you to scroll down and read Truth 365, then, share it… please.  It makes me think of something else… the fact we’ve been prepping Jake for this harvest has meant daily injections, as you know. In fact, because his cells haven’t mobilized in the amount of time they expected, we’ve had to fill extra days of his injection prescriptions (the shots continue until the harvest is complete).  I want to give you some information, not to make you feel uncomfortable or sorry for our situation but to bring more awareness… the shots we give him come in teeny, tiny vials, you can see in the photo.  Yesterday, we had to fill 4 extra vials to the tune of an additional $1906 on top of the nine vials he’s already gone through this past week and a half.  Do you see the itty, bitty vial in the picture?  They are tiny, 1ml vials BUT we only give him .5ml – then we must throw the rest out… wasted.  What in the world can be in a vial so small to cost that much money?!!! (In dollars, that’s almost $500 per vial!)  It’s infuriating and it’s wrong! Things MUST change!  The photo captures how our mornings start… our prep area for his shot… and in the background you can see the pharmacy of Jake’s meds.  It’s crazy!  Again, I tell you this for awareness, so that you might fight for these children, for these families who must find ways to make sure their children have what they need to battle their disease.  Do you think that if childhood cancer research had more than 4% to work with, there might be better or less expensive drugs for these families?  I do.  Please, please, visit  www.thetruth365.com to see how easy it is to help.  I will try not to harp in every post, I just want everyone to know that there is hope, we just have to “DO”………. for scripture says we are one body in Christ, we all have different parts, different jobs, but we work together to glorify God.   On a lighter note… the Daughters of the King visited our home last night to Christmas carol.  What a treat!  They were beautiful and joyful and what a gift it was to have them sing for us and then bless us with a special prayer.  I had to hug each of them… they were just precious young ladies.  We have been blessed by so many generous offerings of time and love, friends that want to show their support for our family… we are so thankful!  These are moments and memories that give us hope and courage each time we walk into TCH for a new procedure or appointment.  THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!  I wish I could give every one of you a big, big hug.  Please know that we praise God each night for you and all of the help and comfort you bring to our family… we love you and send our deepest, most heartfelt appreciation for your prayers… we feel you!