Thursday Jan 8th

Well yesterday was fever free and made for a much more pleasant day.  (last night not so much feverr free but today's a new day)

Jim was here and we had a really nice discussion about my case with the fellow on my team.  We are in a holding pattern until my counts improve and at that point I may go home.  One way or another I will have another round of chemo soon (it will be a hospitalized stay) but they really like to get people home in between that first month in the hospital and the next treatment (Fingers crossed)

Thank you for all your comments, cards, food donations, love, prayers, visits,  everything - it is easy for me to slip into a sad place and all of have propped me up - I thank you and I realize I need to be a lot more thoughtful going forward.  You people have it down!

My brother John arrived yesterday and it was so good to see him.  We talked about everything and nothing and it was perfect.

So on the medical side - we are watching my blood counts improve (slowly) after the chemo eradicated everything that was there in the marrow but no one expects significant bumps until maybe the weekend,  I may have mentioned a third bone marrow biopsy was in my future - looks like that will happen this week.

I miss and love all of you and thank you/pray for you every day.

Maureen

Wednesday January 7

Good morning

Another chilly day in Boston (or so I am told) but the sun is shining brightly and it will be a good day!

Tuesday January 6

My absolutely adorable nurse Julie wrote Day 21 :) on my little whiteboard.  Hard to believe!

Still fighting a fever (or fevers) and there was a lot of activity in my room last night with people making sure I was okay (I was okay once they left so I could sleep :)

Bottom line is the combination of being neutropenic and ...

Finally - I saw an accident out my window!  From my perspective it is the worlds smallest fender bender that now has 4 people circling the two cars.  They need to move those cars and stop standing in the middle of the street!

But I digress - we were rightly cautioned that fever(s) were in our future - as my counts recover hopefully all of the fever nonsense will be behind me

Feeling strong and have a decent energy level today.  Off to do some walking laps around the unit :)

Love Moe

Monday January 5, 2015

Today is starting off extraordinarily good start.  The fever has broken (for now) and I feel pretty good.  The preliminary results of the CT scan showed nothing concerning

Today is my Mom's last day - I wish I had the consistent energy I had the first two weeks - but it was nice to have Mom here when I was not feeling so great.

More Later

Weekend Update 1/3 & 1/4/2015

Happy Wildcard weekend!

These last two days were not so awesome for Moe Staudt.  My medical team cautioned I could expect fevers and nausea.  Yesterday into today my temperature fluctuated from 99.8 to 103!  Fortunately, we were able to get it under control pretty quickly.  They took oodles of blood to see if they can isolate the  culprit causing the fever but it might be as simple as I am neutropenic and I am likely to get a fever.  A CT Scan is in my future for this afternoon (again just to see if we can get a little more information).

Now the good news...my counts will hopefully start to recover by the end of this week.  Once that happens I should feel better and have more energy.  Also improved counts are critical to my heading home.

My Doctors have suggested I temporarily limit visitors since my fever had been so high.  I will let all of know when that changes as your visits have been critical to my keeping the faith

With Love
Maureen

Saturday January 3

The second bone marrow biopsy results came back yesterday and they show a clean bone marrow. So no more chemo (for now) - instead this is a period of recovery where my marrow produces red blood cells, platelets, and white blood cells.  Within the next two weeks I will have another bone marrow biopsy which will hopefully confirm there are still no leukemia cells (or if they are there, they are in an acceptable range).

At some point during all of this I will head home but all indicators are that trip will not happen until after the third bone marrow biopsy.

Next up is more chemotherapy to keep me in remission followed by a bone marrow transplant.

I am so grateful  and lucky the chemo did its job in this first round.  It is wonderful to go into the next phase feeling strong.

Another blessed weekend for visitors with my Mom, Jim, the kids, and my brother-in-law and sister-in-law.

More later and happy sunny Saturday!

Love Maureen

Friday January 2, 2015

New Years Day was a blessed day with visitors (Mom, Aunt Debbie, Jim, Emma) but I was sooooo tired. Despite the fun conversations I kept dozing off - perhaps my mind and body associate New Years Day with napping! Anyway,it makes me really appreciate the days when I am not tired - like today - yeah!

Looking forward to seeing some good friends today - apologies in advance if I fall asleep on you - nothing personal.

I was watching the news this morning and saw a segment on cancer Researchers have found that bad luck plays a major role in determining most types of cancer rather than genetics or risky lifestyle choices such as smoking.  http://time.com/3651785/cancer-bad-luck/ Go figure
Love
Maureen

PS my medical team may walk me through the 2nd bone marrow biopsy result sometime today.