Day 4 After Transplant---Coasting along….

Everything seems to be going very well. Day 1 was very uneventful. There was no unusual reactions, except for the normal fatigue. The nurses were declaring his response as “exceptional”. Compared to other patients going through the same procedure, most had been put on TPN, which is IV nutrition, by the second day.

Day 2 and Day 3, W started to feel a little queasy and had less appetite. He had to make a conscious effort to drink some soup and applesauce (one of his favorites). His white cell blood count continued to decrease. This means that the chemo and radiation was doing what it was intended to do and that was to kill the cancerous lymphocytes (white blood cells) and that his blood cell count was decreasing, as expected. However, this low count lowers his immune ability to fight any germ that takes hold. Therefore, he is confined to his room.

He has a very nice private room. It is about 15 x 15 room. It has a beautiful view of the valley and nearby freeway from the 6th floor. He has all the amenities of a hotel: TV, VCR and DVD, a private bathroom with shower and daily maid/PCA service. His nurses are very attentive. One night while using the bathroom he bumped his hand and scraped it on something, making it bleed, while trying to navigate the IV pole around. He wasn’t sure what to do for his bleeding hand so he pulled the emergency cord and all the nurses on the ward came running to help. Sheepishly he told them what he had done, but they were quick to call the doctor to get an antibiotic to prevent infection, knowing how a little infection could be deadly. I have a very high regard for the caring and diligence these nurses demonstrate in everything they do. I believe there is one nurse assigned to two patients.

To pass the time W has his laptop and I pod. He likes to watch movies on Netflix and listen to audiobooks and read the Entertainment and Popular Science magazines I bring him. I come to see him everyday and he appreciates the visits from his family. When he gets “ansy”, he likes to pace around the round and do his physical therapy exercises. He remembers all too vividly his last hospitalization and the debilitated condition he was in from being in ICU for two weeks. He is determined to prevent this from happening again if he can help it. I am so proud of how he is taking an active role in his care and recovery. It would have been easy to let others do it for him, but he has learned this will not get him home any sooner. When his blood count gets to a certain limit, he will be allowed to venture out of his room with the protective equipment on that all his visitors and staff have to wear in his room: gown, gloves and mask.

Another result of the chemo is a lowered red blood count. When the red blood cells, which carry oxygen, get too low, a blood transfusion is needed. W has needed blood transfusions on Day 2 and Day 3. On the second transfusion, I noticed a tag on the bag that said “designated donor”. This means that W is getting the blood from the generous friends and family who agreed to donate. Thank you so much for your love and gift.

It is with utmost certainty that W’s condition is a result of all of people praying for him. God has answered in a very clear and positive way. He is listening to all the prayers you have sent up for W. We both appreciate them so much.

Knitting things that comfort and calm me while W recovers:

1) Brown variegated pair of socks on dpns.

2) Red Owl Cardigan on circular needles

3) Pink lace scarf on circs.

Happy Transplant Birthday!

“Today is the 1st day of the rest of your life!” Today is like a rebirthing day for W as he had his Stem Cell Transplant today. There were four units of cord blood from two donors infused quickly into W. Nurses and doctors were watching vigilantly for any adverse reactions while this all happened. I sat nearby watching and praying that all would go well. It all took about an hour. At 2:55 pm W got a second chance of a quality of life.



God is very good. There was no reactions, but W. is still groggy from the pre-medication he was given. He just wants to have a good nap. Over the next few weeks, there is likely to be some side effects but these Nurses are amazing. They are so knowledgeable and do everything right down to the letter. A lot of checking and rechecking goes on for every medication, treatment, order, etc. Everyone entering the room wears protective clothing, mask and gloves to protect the patient. There are no shortcuts taken. Being a nurse myself, I am familiar with what should happen and I must say this hospital and staff is #1 in my book.



Today is also National Nurse’s Day. I was surprised that I had to remind W’s nurse of the day. These City of Hope nurses and staff have my thanks and appreciation for their careful care of W. They deserve to celebrate Nurse’s day everyday! It’s no surprise why they are so successful with these transplants. They have the best staff who really know their stuff and care about their patients.

T minus 1 day before transplant

W. has been passing the days quite happily watching videos, listening to audiobooks, eating what he wants. These are all his favorite things to do. For him this is a little bit of heaven. Yesterday was the first day, since starting his daily conditioning chemo that he has felt any different. He is getting more fatigued and feeling like he is dragging his body around. Yet, he is still able to converse and joke around, albeit between very long napping. Today is the Total Body Radiation day, where he gets a relatively lower dose of radiation to kill the cancer cells, ready for the infusion of stem cells tomorrow.

This is considered Day 0 of the Stem Cell Transplant. Every day after is like a new life, a birthday! The nurses tell us that the doctors start counting these days to track how likely the transplant will be a success. The magic number is 100. If the patient reaches this without any complications, it is more likely to continue a success. So this is the time to pray, pray, pray.

I have been trying to put in some time at work, while W. is in the hospital. This fills my day as I haven’t had a lot of time to think about what’s next. Our sons have been visiting and keep in touch with whats going on. I am surrounded by caring people who ask how things are going. I am very blessed. I know it is God who is arranging for these people to pop in to give me encouragement. I seem to be running into old friends in the grocery store who I haven’t seen in awhile, as well. Perhaps God felt I needed some uplifting. He was right and I enjoyed the encounters greatly.

City of Hope 34th Bone Marrow Reunion

Day T minus 6 to transplant – City of Hope 34th Bone Marrow Reunion Day


Today W received his first chemo treatment to condition his body for transplant. This was to be the strong “stuff” that would likely cause some uncomfortable side effects. In the past, W. has been very fortunate in the variety of chemotherapies he has encountered, he had very little, if any, side effects from it. This time, seems to be the same. Thank you Lord. His appetite is good. In fact, he has been given the directive from the dietician to eat anything he wants. How could life be any better? W is on a low bacteria diet, but other than the foods designated restricted, like salads and fresh fruit, he can order anything. He must be in heaven.

I had an invitation from W’s doctor to attend their Bone Marrow Transplant Reunion today! The City of Hope sure knows how to throw a party and celebrate. They had a barbeque for hundreds, perhaps thousand people. There was food non-stop for 6 hrs. For the kids they had bouncers and carnival games. There was a special atmosphere all around of happy friendliness and celebration. Bone or stem cell recipients wore large round buttons and T-shirts indicating how many years they had their transplant. There were many reunions between donor and recipient. Seeing those 10 year plus badges was very encouraging to me. There were a lot of them. I struck up a conversation with a young mother who had her transplant 7 years ago, diagnosed with Leukemia 1 month after having her 4th child. She gave me some very good advice on how to keep up my husband’s spirits up during this transplant time. Her experience was very valuable to hear about. There were also some speakers and a comedian who did a monologue of his experience as a bone marrow recipient. He was very funny.

Earlier in the day, a blood mobile was set up, but I missed it. I am saving my blood for the Hospital to call me to donate for W. anyway. I did, however, sign up for the World Bone Marrow/Stem Cell Registry, which only took a swab of the inside of my cheek to do. Perhaps I can save someone elses life with my stem cells, like W is having his life saved. Nowadays, collecting stem cells is like giving blood. Can you imagine how many lives can be saved if everyone was on the registry?

T minus 5 days to transplant

W spent the day with his laptop watching episodes of Dr. Who on Netflix. The hospital has a DSL line for its patients to use. This has kept him very entertained. He does feel fatigue, as usual, and takes naps several times a day. Today, I was helping our eldest son pack up and move to a new apartment. Talk about stress. Hopefully, the worst of it is over.

The other day we received an email from a friend. “W, when this is all done, will you let us know if you have any new super powers? We can keep your secret identity secret.” This gave us a chuckle. We will have to keep watching closely for those “super powers”. Perhaps, he will be the next Iron Man or Chemo Man.

The Calm before the Storm

Although I have very little real experience in being in a tornado, I recall seeing the movie “Twister”, a movie about chasing tornados. Between tornados there is always this eery calm before the next twister. I feel as if we have been going through this calm.

Admission to the hospital has been delayed. One of the cord blood transplants is coming from Europe and flights have shut down because of the volcanic ash spreading over Europe from Iceland. So everything has been moved back a week and we’ll know today if W. will be admitted to the City of Hope to start the process of receiving the transplant.

So as we wait, we have been accomplishing a few things. We now have a new garage and front door and they look beautiful. The contractors, Triangle Construction, were wonderful and I highly recommend them. Walter rounded up enough energy to patch a rather large hole in one of our walls. And I have started my Spring Cleaning, focusing on sorting my stash of fiber, yarns and projects.

I was shocked to learn that I have over 50 lbs of fiber and roving to spin up. This should get me through a lot of cold winters, and then some. Last night I counted all my UFOs (unfinished objects), which amounted to 40 projects. I decided to frog (unravel or “rip-it”) 15 of them. Eleven of them are finished except for sewing up or adding some buttons. That left about 14 active projects to work on. I must have some kind of OCD as I am fighting the urge to start something new.

My next step is to count and sort my yarn---O my! Any guesses as to how much of that I have? I think the local woman’s charity is going to be very happy with my donation of yarn this year, if I can bear to part with it.

W.and I have tried to do as much as possible to celebrate his freedom before he goes into the hospital for a month or more. Fatigue prevents him from doing a lot along this line, but he does like to eat. His big thing was searching for the best Banana Split in the area. I think he has decided that Millie’s Restaurant has everyone beat. He has been stocking up on audiobooks to pass the time in the hospital. We are awaiting to see if he can take his laptop so he can have other means of entertaining himself in isolation. The only thing that we were unable to do is see the upcoming movies that W. wants to see, i.e. Iron Man 2. He will, however, have access to some movies, in the hospital cable TV.

W and I have had some time to talk about worst case scenarios. We are in agreement with decisions that should be made if things should worsen. I think we have a peace about that. However, I cannot escape some little trepidation and fear when reality hits. Nevertheless, I am the sort of person that has not panicked in crisis and God will help me through any event. I have total confidence in this and I trust HIM. In my personal bible study, I was asked to write a psalm. Here it is……

Diana’s Psalm


Praise the Lord for he is good,

His love and mercy endures forever.

He provides courage for the sick and troubled.

He walks besides us leading the way.

He dries our tears and comforts our fears

And folds his loving arms around us.



Praise the Lord for he is good

He provides for all our needs when we trust him

Overwhelming worries become like dust

When we turn it all over to him

Like the sparrows of the earth who are tenderly cared for

He tenderly cares for us to provide everything we need.



Praise the Lord for he is good

He brings people to comfort and encourage us

He lifts us up like leaves on a big tree.

To see the love and support around us on sturdy branches.



Praise the Lord for giving us peace

He gives us hope for a better future

He promises us a home with him eternally.

The troubles of the world disappear.



Praise the Lord for He is good

His love and mercies endure forever.

The Tornado of Life

W. and I have been caught up in a whirlwind of activity these past few weeks. There has been the medical tests, pulmonary, heart, blood, bone marrow, multiple lab tests, to see if W.s body can handle this very intensive procedure and recovery after a stem cell transplant. There are multiple doctor consults, and education classes to attend. A lot of the time is spend in waiting rooms. I fear I have gained weight by just sitting too much. What a drag.


This procedure is very important. It is a BIG DEAL! This might be W’s only chance at a stem cell transplant and a longer life span. We are jumping through every hoop we can to make this happen.

There is also some sense of finality about this. Although the hope is there for a future, it has some big risks associated with it. The worst case scenario is that Walter will not come home. We have spoken about this possibility and I think we are both somewhat at peace with this and we are both in a mode of sharing every moment possible getting the house ready. For what I know not. We know God is in control and we trust him for whatever he wants for us. I think Walter is trying to squeeze every ounce of strength and energy out of his body and do something with it, knowing that he is likely going to have to rebuild his strength again from scratch after the transplant. I have finally allowed W. to drive again, regaining some sense of independence, he has craved since last January.


The other day, I shared with Walter that I did not have a desk or room for myself. My stuff, i.e fiber and yarn stuff, is spread throughout the house. Now, we have two extra rooms and so he decided we should each get one for our “stuff”. So we have been moving furniture and sorting through our collection of stuff, paring it down and organizing.

Since we were blessed with a tax refund this year, the first in many years, we decided to finally replace our garage and front doors. So in the one week we have left together before he enters the hospital for his transplant, we have been trying to get all this done.

Doing all of this is very therapeutic for our emotional health. It helps distract us from our hidden fears. It helps us be productive and prepare for the future whatever it might be. It gives us a sense of living life to the fullest, a sense of normality, when over the past year it has been anything but normal. God has been good to us. It almost feels like the week before our wedding. All the planning is done. You know your life is about to change dramatically, and you are trying to stay in control of your emotions, your fears, your hopes and dreams for the future.

It's All about Heart!

Perhaps you’ve been wondering what has happened to my knitting in the midst of all this. It may sound that my husband’s health has taken over my life, and to be truthful, it has. However, what keeps me calm is my knitting. I cannot imagine going anywhere without it. It has become my 3rd arm.

With the exciting, yet fearful news that W. will be undergoing a stem cell transplant, we have been swept up in a whirlwind of appointments: lab tests, x-rays and scans, nutrition classes to learn how to prevent food borne infections, biopsies, blood evaluations for every virus known to man. I’m not kidding when I tell you since last Wed to next week, we have over 20 medical appointments! With this always comes the “Sit and wait” time and I try to relax to knit a portable project and this time it is Vanilla Socks. Vanilla socks, in knitting lingo usually means knitting a basic sock pattern, however, this time I really am knitting some Vanilla socks, an off-white elastic cotton I found in my stash that I needed to do something with.

I was browsing through Michaels Crafts, my favorite store, and came across a book called Socks from the Toe Up, by Wendy Johnson. She is a well-known, at least to the knitting and sock making world, who first developed this technique of making socks. The book had a variety of patterns from plain socks, using different cast-ons, different heel techniques and bind-offs, to beautiful lace and textured patterns.

I had never tried a textured pattern before and found one I thought simple enough to do without too much concentration…..a heart pattern.

The yarn is a cotton yarn, spun in boucle fashion with a strand of lycra, that makes it stretch. With summer coming, cotton is breathable and I wanted to try to knit a well-fitting sock that would hug my foot without being too tight. This is my experiment and it is going well so far.

It certainly has sparked the interest of many fellow “waiters” at City of Hope. It’s amazing how easy it is to start a conversation with strangers there. The fact that we are all going through some kind of cancer or health situation binds us all together in many ways. Anywhere we go there in the City of Hope, there is tremendous compassion and support, among the staff and fellow patients and caregivers. All hospitals should be this way.