Sunday, February 8, 2009
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Mini time line to catch you up to speed:
My Dad’s Journey….
May dad is a loving husband to my mom, Blanca Vela. He is an amazing father to: my sister Andrea, my brother Ray and myself. And he absolutely loves being a grandfather to Jenna (6) & Drew (4).
The Bad News
It was on my Dad’s birthday on July 8th 2006 that he was told he was diagnosed with Leukemia. I was in Australia at the time and they waited till I returned to tell me. There is no feeling in the world that compares to news like that! My dad is so strong and can do a lot of everything and he always is positive and has always been a ROCK! How can this be so…. I really battled fear for quite some time and never realized just how much of a foundation my dad brings in my life!
Time for Chemo
First round of Chemo started in Sept ‘06 and went for 8 months. He would go to work 2 weeks then off for 2 weeks to do chemo treatment and then recover. He went into remission and they told us he would probably stay in remission for up to 10yrs.
Less than one year later in June the leukemia returned and more aggressive than before. The doc said of the hundreds of patients he had this had never happened!
Second round of Chemo started and after 3 months they realized it was getting to be too much for my dad’s body to handle and levels were not going down like the expected and wanted so he needed to have a bone marrow transplant or this aggressive CLL was gonna take over!
From Germany came a Hero!
Well time to find a bone marrow match. Unfortunately none of his sibling were a match. They said when it comes to a bone marrow match one’s children’s are as good at being a match as a perfect stranger so the checked the national donor bank! They found 9 matches. 8 of the 9 were from Germany!! It was so cool to find out that somewhere down the line at least one of our ancestors were German!
A young man from Germany become our families hero and he gave to us the best gift we could have ever received. Bone marrow that had the potential to save my dad’s life!!!
The Transplant
First step is to completely kill off all the cancer cells and the bone marrow so the horrific way this happens is absolutely crushing for a family to see.
First was 3 days of radiation 2 times a day. My mom says it looked like he was being strapped into an electric chair! They started the first few by covering the vital organs but the last few blasts were total body radiation!
Then the 2 days of hard core Chemo therapy starts….and IV w/a bag of straight up poison as far as I’m concerned got pumped into his veins.
One day of rest….
With his entire immune system wiped out to be able to receive the new bone marrow the Transplant happened! A huge bag of what looked like blood pumped into his body. My dad listened to a CD of scriptures as the bad dripped threw his IV. That’s all we knew we could stand on and my dad did just that!
The Valley of the Shadow of Death
The massive wave of the radiation and chemo hit my dad so hard about 2 weeks in. They told us it would take a while to hit. They weren’t lying. When it hit…it hit!! He dropped more than 30lbs in 14days right off the bat. He had side effects that are too much to write about. He stayed in the hospital for 14 days and they said he did better than most patients! He bled from his bladder the skin from inside of his mouth and throat completely blistered and peeled off. He lost all his hair and completely transformed to a different looking man. He would tell me he didn’t recognize the man in the mirror and couldn't find himself in the reflection!(he’d tell us he thought he looked like uncle fester. ) I went back to my home for one week and when I returned to his hospital room 7 days later I felt like someone had punched me in the gut and it took every bit of strength for me to not show it! After about 10 min I had to go out to the restroom and cry and recompose and return. (my dad never knew)
Dad felt God!!!
Many times my mom would find my dad in tears and he would say he felt God so near and he said he could hear Him tell him everything was going to be ok. My dad would tell my mom when she’d come in the room from being home overnight that he had amazing times with the Lord and he wouldn’t even be able to talk to her. He would just point up and weep! It’s just been so amazing to see and feel God show up all over this journey…
Bone Marrow…a tricky thing!
Over the last 4 months has been a daily fight to win this battle. As the new bone marrow kicks in it doesn't recognize the body it "wakes up" in so it starts to fight it(Host vs Graft disease)...and you never know where it will attack next so you watch what it does daily in the beginning and the doc prescribes and does treatments to counter the attack! A couple more stays at the hospital…everyday visits to the clinic…checking blood levels everyday to see what the body is doing…dozens of pints of blood given….dozens of bags of plasma….bottles and bottles of mediation taken….steroids…..steroids….let me tell you bout steroids!!!
Steroids don’t make you strong!!
I always thought steroids made you stronger…well the steroid my dad was on did the opposite!! It completely devoured all the muscle in my dad’s body!! We had to put ramps outside the house so he could get to the car...get him a wheel chair...buy a lift chair so he could stand up.... a walker to hold himself up in restroom. Higher booster seat in restroom and chair for the shower and handles for the shower wall and the heart break of seeing my dad lose his mobility for a season! I literally would have to wrap my arms around his waist and he put his arms on my shoulder to raise him up from sitting in a chair or in the car etc...
My Dad’s Journey….
May dad is a loving husband to my mom, Blanca Vela. He is an amazing father to: my sister Andrea, my brother Ray and myself. And he absolutely loves being a grandfather to Jenna (6) & Drew (4).
The Bad News
It was on my Dad’s birthday on July 8th 2006 that he was told he was diagnosed with Leukemia. I was in Australia at the time and they waited till I returned to tell me. There is no feeling in the world that compares to news like that! My dad is so strong and can do a lot of everything and he always is positive and has always been a ROCK! How can this be so…. I really battled fear for quite some time and never realized just how much of a foundation my dad brings in my life!
Time for Chemo
First round of Chemo started in Sept ‘06 and went for 8 months. He would go to work 2 weeks then off for 2 weeks to do chemo treatment and then recover. He went into remission and they told us he would probably stay in remission for up to 10yrs.
Less than one year later in June the leukemia returned and more aggressive than before. The doc said of the hundreds of patients he had this had never happened!
Second round of Chemo started and after 3 months they realized it was getting to be too much for my dad’s body to handle and levels were not going down like the expected and wanted so he needed to have a bone marrow transplant or this aggressive CLL was gonna take over!
From Germany came a Hero!
Well time to find a bone marrow match. Unfortunately none of his sibling were a match. They said when it comes to a bone marrow match one’s children’s are as good at being a match as a perfect stranger so the checked the national donor bank! They found 9 matches. 8 of the 9 were from Germany!! It was so cool to find out that somewhere down the line at least one of our ancestors were German!
A young man from Germany become our families hero and he gave to us the best gift we could have ever received. Bone marrow that had the potential to save my dad’s life!!!
The Transplant
First step is to completely kill off all the cancer cells and the bone marrow so the horrific way this happens is absolutely crushing for a family to see.
First was 3 days of radiation 2 times a day. My mom says it looked like he was being strapped into an electric chair! They started the first few by covering the vital organs but the last few blasts were total body radiation!
Then the 2 days of hard core Chemo therapy starts….and IV w/a bag of straight up poison as far as I’m concerned got pumped into his veins.
One day of rest….
With his entire immune system wiped out to be able to receive the new bone marrow the Transplant happened! A huge bag of what looked like blood pumped into his body. My dad listened to a CD of scriptures as the bad dripped threw his IV. That’s all we knew we could stand on and my dad did just that!
The Valley of the Shadow of Death
The massive wave of the radiation and chemo hit my dad so hard about 2 weeks in. They told us it would take a while to hit. They weren’t lying. When it hit…it hit!! He dropped more than 30lbs in 14days right off the bat. He had side effects that are too much to write about. He stayed in the hospital for 14 days and they said he did better than most patients! He bled from his bladder the skin from inside of his mouth and throat completely blistered and peeled off. He lost all his hair and completely transformed to a different looking man. He would tell me he didn’t recognize the man in the mirror and couldn't find himself in the reflection!(he’d tell us he thought he looked like uncle fester. ) I went back to my home for one week and when I returned to his hospital room 7 days later I felt like someone had punched me in the gut and it took every bit of strength for me to not show it! After about 10 min I had to go out to the restroom and cry and recompose and return. (my dad never knew)
Dad felt God!!!
Many times my mom would find my dad in tears and he would say he felt God so near and he said he could hear Him tell him everything was going to be ok. My dad would tell my mom when she’d come in the room from being home overnight that he had amazing times with the Lord and he wouldn’t even be able to talk to her. He would just point up and weep! It’s just been so amazing to see and feel God show up all over this journey…
Bone Marrow…a tricky thing!
Over the last 4 months has been a daily fight to win this battle. As the new bone marrow kicks in it doesn't recognize the body it "wakes up" in so it starts to fight it(Host vs Graft disease)...and you never know where it will attack next so you watch what it does daily in the beginning and the doc prescribes and does treatments to counter the attack! A couple more stays at the hospital…everyday visits to the clinic…checking blood levels everyday to see what the body is doing…dozens of pints of blood given….dozens of bags of plasma….bottles and bottles of mediation taken….steroids…..steroids….let me tell you bout steroids!!!
Steroids don’t make you strong!!
I always thought steroids made you stronger…well the steroid my dad was on did the opposite!! It completely devoured all the muscle in my dad’s body!! We had to put ramps outside the house so he could get to the car...get him a wheel chair...buy a lift chair so he could stand up.... a walker to hold himself up in restroom. Higher booster seat in restroom and chair for the shower and handles for the shower wall and the heart break of seeing my dad lose his mobility for a season! I literally would have to wrap my arms around his waist and he put his arms on my shoulder to raise him up from sitting in a chair or in the car etc...
Dad fell and thought he Cracked his skull!
About 6 wks ago on one of my visits home my dad asked me to take him to see his mom. He had been getting stronger and could shuffle around.....some!. Well on the way home he asked me to stop at a car parts store. He opened his door and i was like "your getting out?" He put his mask on and said yes! By the time i got to the front of the truck i heard him call my name and i turned to see him loose his step and fall backward flat on his back and bang his head on the concrete drive! I heard the horrific sound of his head hitting and bouncing once and immediately he reached his hands to the back of his head and got into a fetal position. My heart stopped and fear flooded my soul!!! A man had to help me get him up and my dad said he was fine. He told me to drive him to he ER but said he had no pain and was fine. I could see his hands shaking! Long story short...As the workers realized that my dad was a coworker because none of them recognized him they rushed him straight into a room. When they asked him what was wrong he said " i cracked my skull''. My heart sank cause i knew he could die. His body is in not condition to loose any blood at all and his immune system so low! When it was all said and done he ended up being fine but it was the scariest day of my life!!(i"ll have to write a book some day to include all the details in this part of the story...including the cute guy that shows up in this story!)...
Today
well there are so so many parts to this story i have left out for the sake of not having a massive novel for all to read so in a nut shell:
As of Jan 22nd my dad official was "released" from his job after working at the hospital for 32 years! He worked in radiology where he has done x-rays, cat scans and MRI's. He went through all his sick time, vacation, etc...He is now on disability and cobra for ins. God keeps amazingly providing and right now he is trying to sell his house that we have lived in for over 20 years so he can get a cheaper smaller house and try to get debt free. Its hard cause with out a job you cant apply for anything...so we shall see....God keeps working amazing miracles and this too shall be what needs to be.
Physically he is getting stronger daily. The host vs graft attacked his skin so he has lost a whole layer of skin and then some so we just tell him he is turning into a German Man! :) He has now lost a total of 70lbs and weighs less than all off us! He is down to going to the clinic 2 sometime 3 times a week. He has made lots of friends at the clinic and been able to share same fight with them. Unfortunately we have already meet a couple of people that no longer come to the clinic because they have lost the fight...
Dad has kept a positive attitude threw out this entire journey and he gives God all the credit. Dad has had the most amazing doctors and nurses. I cant imagine having doctors any better than what my dad has had. I truly believe they are an extension of God's grace here on earth!There are so many untold stories about my mom! She has been the rock and has fought just as hard if not harder to get my dad threw this! Untold stories bout my siblings and my niece and nephew...Nothing will ever be able to take away from me the lessons and growth I have received threw this experience! There have been funny things, cool things, interesting things, sad things etc...etc...so.....
I promise to update my blog more regularly...
I think I had a mental wall because to write it makes it real. And when you are in it God's grace supernaturally guide you but sometimes the reality of it all is unreal!
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