Good News Today!

We got some good news today. Steve's white blood cell count is up to 1.44! And his ANC is now detectable at .3 (The ANC is what determines his ability to fight off infections) and the platelets are holding steady. If this continues he may come home tomorrow!

The transplant oncologist doubled his daily dose of neupogen and scheduled the stem cell harvest for Monday. They believe that his white counts will go up exponentially now that there has been an improvement.

Our thanks go out to everyone who has been praying for us. We give God all the glory!

Blood Counts Still Low

Steve is feeling better but his blood counts are not improving a whole lot. Here is the break down of what has been happening. The white and red blood cells and platelets have been very low. Before he had the chemo on the 22nd he was already below normal (White 2.69, normal 3.28-9.29, Platelets 226, normal 143-398). His bone marrow only had six weeks to recover from the 5 months of chemo (MPT) before we started.

Friday his platelets were at 36, Saturday 22, Sunday 9, so he received some platelets via i.v. and the number went up to 18 that evening. Monday 42, Going up! Then today down to 26, so he received more platelets.

His white blood cells were .06 on Saturday, .08 on Sunday, .15 on Monday and .20 this morning. He needs to be at 2.0 to even begin harvesting his stem cells. I know these numbers are hard to understand but it helps me to write about it.

What all this means is his bone marrow is not working very well. Even with the neupogen shots (to boost his white blood cells) he's not where we expected him to be. His marrow could have been compromised by the melphalan he was on for 5 months. We were told this was a possibility, but its too early to tell if this is the case.
Thank you for your prayers and if you have any words of encouragement for us please post a comment.
Love Deanna
AKA Mrs. Liscom

Please Pray For Us

I just got home from th hospital and I'm very tired. Steve was admitted on Friday due to some unexpected complications. His blood counts were low on Friday as we expected but so were his platletes, he was dehydrated from vomiting and a recurrence of a c-difficile infection and he had a fever of 100.4. He was admitted to Santa Monica Hospital and is taking 3 different antibiotics. His platelets have continued to drop and so today he received some donor platelets and a blood transfusion. He's finally eating again and would tell you he feels better.

Our biggest concern is that his blood counts are not trending upward. Since he's been "tentatively" scheduled to have his stem cells harvested on Tuesday we thought we would see a huge increase by now. You could say things are moving in the wrong direction. All his counts are extremely low and therefore he is at a greater risk of an infection and bleeding. Our prayer is for his body to start producing the blood prouducts he needs so he can get better, come home, and move foward with the transplant. Not to mention, I miss him terribly:-(

6 Days Since Chemo

The first few days after Steve's chemo treatment were uneventful. He didn't feel too bad. Tuesday is when he started to feel really tired and that night the bone pain began. He woke up many times during the night due to the pain and a reoccurring nightmare. He was very tired and upset by Wednesday morning. The bone pain came and went throughout the day and into the evening. He slept a little better last night but still had some disturbing dreams. We weren't told that any of the treatments would cause nightmares But anything is possible with the amount of drugs he's receiving.

I'm not that crazy about giving him shots everyday. I asked him if he would give himself the shots and he said "No way!" There were a few times that I had to stick him a second time because the syringe stuck to my hand when I wanted to adjust my grip! Gives me chills.

I am very squeamish when it comes to shots, getting blood taken and so on. So it does not come easy for me to give shots to Steve. We all know that the Lord prepares us for trials and temptations. We are never sure how a current trial is going to strengthen us for a future trial. But I know they do. I can personally attest to it.

The Lord began preparing me for this season starting in 1998. My second son, Andrew, was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes when he was 12. He took quickly to giving himself his shots and testing his blood sugar. But over time he began experiencing Hypoglycemic seizures. They would always occur in the middle of the night when he was sleeping. There was nothing he could due to stop them. It was up to us to give him a glucagon shot to stop the effects of the insulin and bring him out of the seizure and the low blood sugar. The glucagon kit has a very large glass syringe that contains a liquid that you inject into a small vial with a dissolvable tablet inside. Once it dissolves you draw all the liquid back into the syringe and then inject it into the patient. I have to say these times were very intense. We were never sure when the seizure started or how long it had been before one of my other sons were awaken by the sounds Andrew was making. On a few occasions he didn't wake up from the seizure soon enough and we had to call the paramedics.

Eight years later my youngest son, Timothy, was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes when he was 15. His diagnosis blew us all away. We never even thought that another one of my kids would get this disease. Timothy was also quick to give himself shots. Thankfully he has never had a seizure. Did these past trials make this one any easier, not really. This one is tough for many other reasons. But I learned that I am capable of doing what ever I need to do to help my children and my husband. And what I'm called to do may feel overwhelming at the time, I may even want to resist it......but I know I'll get through it. Especially because the Lord is with me.

Steve Looks Good, Huh?

I brought my camera along with us today so I can add pictures to the blog and keep things more interesting. But first I asked my husband for his permission. I don't want to do anything with out him knowing. We'll see what he says after he loses all his hair! He received "a lot" of cytoxan today. A least that's what the nurse said to the other nurse. When you hear something like that you kinda wonder.



As you know from my earlier post we had an uncertain morning. Once we heard it was a go we were able to relax a bit before we had to leave. It wasn't until we were almost on the freeway that we realized Steve had not taken the prednisone. We rushed back home and still made it to UCLA with a few minutes to spare! We shared an infusion "suite" with a beautiful young lady who is also preparing for a stem cell transplant. While we were there for only 4 hours, she was already "hooked" up when we arrived! We had an enjoyable time talking to her and I think it actually made the time go by faster.

Tomorrow a nurse will come over and show us how to administer the neuprogen. He'll get two shots a day between now and the last day they need to harvest his stem cells. I heard another "that's a lot" from the Walgreen's representative while the guy was explaining the dosages to me. When you think of "a lot" of something what comes to your mind? To me a stadium full of people is "a lot" of people, the ants that live in and around my house are "a lot" of ants. Last year I had "a lot" of weeds in my backyard (I mean A LOT!). "A lot" takes on a whole new meaning.

Exactly What You'd Expect

Steve has an appointment today at 11:00 am to get his chemotherapy. He also has a blood draw appointment at 10:00 am that we didn't know about until last night(they took 5 vials from him the other day!). He has 140mg of prednisone to take with breakfast and an anti-nausea drug he's to take with him to the hospital. We just don't know is if his blood thinner will be a problem, preventing him from starting today. Before we left UCLA on Wednesday they wanted to do one more test to see how Steve's blood is coagulating. Depending on the results we would start today or not start today.

It's just like the enemy to do something to try and bring worry and fear to the situation. But our God is a faithful God. We just do what is expected and wait on him. So we made a few phone calls and are waiting to hear back.

Just got a call from the nurse, the test came back negative, he doesn't have to give more blood :-) and we start at 11:00 am. Thank you Lord!

Insurance Approved and Ready to Begin

Got a call on Thursday telling us the insurance company has approved the transplant. We still need to complete a few more blood tests which have been submitted. On Wednesday we go to UCLA to sign the consent forms, meet with the "Harvesting" team and discuss the process with the lead oncologist. It looks like Steve will begin the stem cell mobilization on Friday(22nd), beginning with cytoxan (chemo), prednisone (AGAIN!!)and anti-nausea drugs. Then on Saturday he starts receiving a daily shot (given by me, woo-hoo!)called neupogen. Neupogen will stimulate stem cell growth and release them into the blood stream for harvesting. Eleven days later they begin the actual harvesting of his stem cells. This will be done daily until they get enough for the transplant. If anything changes we'll let you know. Please pray for God's favor every step of the way!

Love,
Steve & Deanna