Late post...

Sorry I forgot to post the results from Monday...

The blood work was good... RBC's and platelets were normal.. Granulocytes were 3.2. Robert is feeling fine, I'm fine... all is well. :D His next treatment will be Monday April the 5th.

Love
Crystal

Birthday Fun!

Ok... since its been almost a week I thought I should post a little something...

First of all, Robert is doing really good. He hasn't been in much pain, and he has been fairly upbeat all week. We celebrated his birthday this weekend, and I managed to successfully procrastinate my entire spring break... Oh well, we had fun! Friday we went out with the Family, and Saturday we spent with friends. Robert was completely spoiled! It was great! We had such a good time! It is really nice to be able to enjoy our lives with so many incredible people! Thanks again to everyone... for everything!

Robert's lab work is tomorrow, hopefully everything will be up to par.

Lots of Love!
Crystal ☺

Round 2

Good news, the shots worked! Yesterday Roberts granulocyte count was 14.5... way above normal. So they went ahead with the Chemo treatment. After the treatment he went in for a lung test and an X-ray. Everything is looking good and the treatment went well. He is feeling good today, and was able to go to work. His mouth sores have gone down considerably. He just has normal aches and pains and some bone pain (due to the shots). He got a Neulasta shot today to help start building those counts back up before they get too low again. They said its more potent than the Neupogen shots and it will last a lot longer. From now on he will be getting them after each treatment.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) he has an appointment to follow up on his biopsy surgery, and Thursday he gets his stitches out from the port surgery. We are expecting that this week is going to be tough on him since that's how it was for his last treatment. His 26th birthday is this Friday and we are planning to celebrate it with friends and family, hopefully he wont be feeling too bad.

We shaved his head and facial hair on Saturday. He didn't seem to mind much. Its weird because the 6 years or so we have been together I've never seen his face so naked... he definitely looks different...but he's still a cutie though! ☺

Thanks again to everyone for all you have done for us! It feels great to be so loved! I am a very independent person and it has been really difficult for me to accept so much help... I'm trying to be better and I'm learning to let people in. Thanks to all the families in our ward who have been bringing dinners, and for the concerned phone calls. Your service and kindness is very appreciated!

♥ Crystal

Delayed

Roberts Chemo was a no go yesterday. They checked his blood counts and the granulocytes (part of his white blood cells) were really low. Last week when they were checked they were at 1.5 and yesterday they were at 0.3. The doctor said that if they were to do the Chemo treatment as scheduled it would wipe his immunity out an he would probably end up in the hospital. So they postponed it until his granulocyte counts come back up. He got a shot yesterday called Neupogen which will stimulate the bone marrow to produce more white blood cells. He got the same shot again today and he will get another tomorrow and Sunday. Then on Monday morning they will be checking his blood counts again to see if they have gone up. If they have gone up they will go ahead with the Chemo treatment. If they are not up he will have to keep going in to get checked until they are. Because the counts were so low after just the first treatment from now on they are going to give him a "booster" shot called Neulasta which will have the same effect as the (Neupogen) shot just over a longer period of time. Hopefully if they do that this wont keep happening. The side effects of Nupogen/Neulasta are that they could cause bone pain...which makes sense since it is stimulating the bone marrow.

Yesterday out of the blue Robert noticed all of these sores starting to appear in his mouth. So bad that his lips were swollen. The nurse said that this is common with people undergoing Chemotherapy. He was given 2 prescriptions for the sores a pill form which he supposed to take until the end of all his treatments and a "magic" mouth wash which kinda numbs the mouth so he can eat. Oh! and we noticed yesterday that his hair is falling out...chunks come out when you pull on it :( bummer!....Oh well it will grow back :)

Since his immunity is so poor right now Robert was instructed to stay home and stay away from lots of people. They gave him an antibiotic just to be safe, but he is not supposed to go out much until those counts come back up. He says he is feeling better today but he seems a little bummed about being home bound. I'm not too worried about him though, I know secretly he likes staying home and playing video games.☺ Plus it gives me a lot of time to study. I guess we will just have to suck it up and be hermits for a few days.

Sorry it has taken some time to update everyone, sometimes I lack motivation to write.. so bare with me.. I will post as often as I can. ☺


♥Crystal

Life is good☺

On Friday Robert had his port placed. Everything went great. He is doing really well! He just has a little pain at the port site. His next treatment is on the 18th so until then this week should be pretty normal for us. Today we were able get caught on some things and have fun with friends.
Tomorrow = church, rest, relaxation and more fun! Weekends are the best!! Hope everyone has a nice week!

♥Crystal

Blood Work

Robert went in to get his blood work done today. Everything was good. His RBC's and Platelets were normal, but his WBC's were low. Normally you would want your WBC count to be between 4.1-10.9 K/uL today his was at 2.9. They seemed most concerned with his Granulocyte (type of WBC) count it was at 1.5 and normal is 2.0-7.8 anything below 1.5 puts him at risk for infection. The nurse said they don't get too concerned unless it drops below 1. At that point they would probably give him some drugs to boost the WBC production. By the time he goes in for his next treatment they should be higher... he still has some immunity, so at this point we really have nothing to worry about.

Robert was feeling a lot better today. He has had a little bit of an upset stomach but that is pretty much it. Tomorrow he goes in to get a port put in his chest. It is an outpatient procedure. He will be awake the whole time. They will give him some meds to keep him relaxed, numb the area, and put it in. It should only last about 45 min but he was told to take the day off so he could recover. Everything should be smooth sailing. This link has some more info about port placement if anyone is curious (you may have to copy and paste it).

http://www.uwhealth.org/healthfacts/B_EXTRANET_HEALTH_INFORMATION-FlexMember-Show_Public_HFFY_1116944249855.html

I will let you all know how it goes tomorrow.

♥Crystal

Deflated

Today was tough. Robert was really drained physically and emotionally. He was very depressed. I think for the first time reality really sank in and it hit him like a ton of bricks. He decided to stay home, get some rest and pull himself together. He had some good conversations with a couple family members and I think that helped bring him out of his funk. He understands now that this is going to be a struggle everyday, and that a positive attitude is what is going to make all the difference.

I love him so much and it's hard to see him so conflicted. I can' t begin to imagine what he must be going through. He is such an amazing person, I wish everyone could see him through my eyes. He is capable of anything and I know he will persevere!


♥ Crystal

Comments

I have had a few people tell me that they have not been able to post comments on the blog. I found the problem and fixed it. You should be able to post your comments now.

Thanks
Crystal

Not Great

Robert hasn't been feeling so good. It started yesterday. He has aches and pains all over. But his mouth has been bothering him the most. His jaw, teeth, and tongue hurt so its been hard for him to chew. He has been a good sport though! He went to work today and has been resting since he got home. He is planning on working tomorrow if he is feeling up to it in the morning. It has been hard seeing him in pain and not being able to make it go away. We are hoping things will get better as his body recovers from the Chemo. There is not much we can do but wait and see what will happen. Please keep him in your prayers!

Love
Crystal

Update

Robert has been doing surprisingly well the past few days. He has not been nauseous or sick and yesterday he started to get some color back in his face. We are hoping that it will stay this way... but its hard telling what will happen. He has his labs on Thursday to check his blood counts and on Friday he is going to get a port put in his chest so that they can give him the Chemo without ruining all the veins in his arms. Hopefully the next few days won't be too eventful...


♥Crystal

First Treatment

Robert had his first round of Chemo today. Everything went well. He looks really pale and he is kinda tired but other than that he says he is doing ok. They gave us about 5 different prescriptions to help him with whatever side affects may come along. We are not quite sure how he is going to react to the treatments so he is going to stay home from work tomorrow and just take it easy. He looks like he could use a good nights rest! We will see how things go tomorrow.. and I will keep everyone posted!

Love
Crystal

Finally Getting Started!

Robert's appointment today went well. We got a lot of information to help us prepare for Robert to start his Chemotherapy treatments. The results from all his tests were good. He is supposed to be getting about 6 cycles. One cycle will consist of 2 treatments a month (2 weeks apart) and will last about 3-4 hours each. They keep telling us that everything should go well since he is so young and should bounce back well from the treatments. We are hoping for the best. :) Tomorrow is his first treatment. I will let you all know how it goes!

Love
Crystal

News

We finally found out today that Robert does indeed have stage III Hodgkin's Lymphoma (that is the better of the two). Now that they know for sure what it is we can get his Chemotherapy started. Tomorrow we go in to talk to the nurse so she can inform us of all the things that are yet to come and Thursday afternoon he will start his first cycle. We were relieved when we got the news, now we can get things started and get Robert better!! Yay!

Love
Crystal

Waiting

Roberts appointment for tomorrow morning was canceled. The pathologists here think that he has Non-Hodgkins but the people they sent the biopsy to for a second opinion think he has Hodgkin's. They are different forms of cancer and need to be treated differently. So to be sure they have to send it out for a third opinion. We don't know how soon that opinion will come back but the nurse practitioner at the doctors office said it could be as soon as tomorrow. Now we are just waiting... We will update everyone as soon as we know whats going on.

Love
Crystal