Day after D-Day (Donation Day)

Me during hour 4 of 5 for donation...


Well after a long day of adventures and a night of rest, and resting today...I thought it was about time I sent out an update to all of you. Most likely as I am typing this my mom is being infused the Interleukin-2 soaked NK cells that I donated yesterday. So prayers that they do their work and mom's system doesn't fight them.

The pretty NK cells...I think they look like a sunrise. :)

When I stopped by to visit her yesterday morning she was nauseous from the previous day of chemo and was a bit sleepy from the anti-nausea meds. By the time I finished my donation and went back to check on her (with my roommate) she was up and smiling and shocked to see me there-I was supposed to head straight home and rest but wanted to celebrate the moment for a little but. She's looked the best I've seen her look in a long time yesterday afternoon-and her low grade fevers only last that one day. So I think she's in the best place she can be to accept these cells. :-)

But I'll at least give you the breakdown of yesterday before we get into anything else...

Yesterday's schedule:

7:45am got to the U of MN with my roommate, went up to visit with mom for a bit.
8:00am had my 1st of 2 IVs placed. (Shortly after I lost my cell phone and my roommate and I found it in my car a 15 minutes later)...
9:00am was checked in and ready to go at the apheresis lab-got the second IV placed and started donation. Watched "A Fish Called Wanda," had a tasty salad lunch with the roomie, and then watched part of "Under the Tuscan Sun". During this time a family friend and my mom's social worker stopped by to say hi and check on my status.
Me all hooked up-and almost done this was hour 4 of 5...

Me with my wonderful roomie who was my chauffeur on the way home and marvelous assistant during the day! :) Love you roomie!

The Machine/ "Octopus" (according to my mom's cousin)...it separated my blood-kept the NK cells and returned the rest to me.

The final product! Those are the NK cells for mom (that she's having infused right now)!

2:30-3pm (sometime in there) I was done and on my way up to surprise mom with a visit and then headed to Chipotle for an early dinner with the roomie. Some time online catching people up and then fell asleep reading "The Girl Who Played with Fire".

Today has been a day of rest catching up on shows I've missed, doing updating and sleeping in. Tomorrow I am back to the grindstone (AKA work). Feeling great, though still feel like I could sleep the day away.

Prayers at this point:
- Mom's body accepting the NK cells and not having issues with side effects
- My sister's health. She just got home yesterday and has a sinus infection/possible cold. So prayers that she heals up soon so she can go see mom.
- Patience and strength for all of this experience for the Dixie's Chicks it's going to be a rough couple weeks-so if you have a free moment or a night free please give one of us a call. I know we will be tired but we will need to keep our spirits up during this time and company is always wonderful for that.

With all my love and gratitude for our INCREDIBLE team of support,
Kate

It's a "God Thing"...a moment in my day...

Just had a realization moments ago, when accidentally interrupting my roommate praying for her church members. The power of prayer. It struck me how much I am going through right now and how much I have changed from even a year ago.

Do I still have anxiety and sadness over everything going on in my life? Yes, at times but not it's not as dark a place as I'ed been in in the past. The depression and overwhelming state of crisis I may have once been immobilized by a a few years ago is now a thing of the past. And this I CANNOT take credit for. It is the people in my life, the experiences I have been through, and above all God. I cannot imagine how I would be reacting to my current adventure, with my mom's health, if it was not for God.

I was reminded a moment ago of my reaction to hearing the news that my mom's blood disorders progression to Leukemia, only a WEEK ago. My first reaction was shock, then to call my boss at my day job to let them know I was not coming in the next day (since I would be at the hospital with my mom during her admission all day). The moment that was done I sat with my mom til she was tired and she went up to bed. The next moment I was texting my roommate, since she was the only person I knew who would still be awake, and after telling her the news I asked her to pray for us. Her response was that her church had been praying for us for weeks. To which I responded that night with tears of gratitude for the people God had been so gracious to place into my journey.

Seeing her in that moment tonight I was overwhelmed by the love of God that she shared with me that night and has continued to do. As well as so many of you who had at one point been mere acquaintances who are now pouring your love upon us. It's completely overwhelming to think about that prayer covering us all. And I realize tonight that it's God, NOT me, who is keeping us all together and going strong. There really is no possible HUMAN explanation for how I am able to be strong enough to keep going after such a shock other than the power of prayer. Sometimes you just need the reminder.

So this my shout out to of gratitude to all of you prayer warriors in our lives. You are INCREDIBLE and BEAUTIFUL souls who are blessing us daily with your intervention on our behalf. Your acts are beyond measure in their influence, I honestly have no words other than "thank you" from the bottom of my heart and soul.

With all my love and appreciation,
Kate

Another bad week...

Just got an email from mom, she had her counts take again this morning, after the blood transfusion last Thursday. And after only 3 hrs she already has been told that:

"Chemo for this week cancelled again because [her]counts are EVEN lower than before! As a result [she is] very high risk for infections so [she is] supposed to wear a mask.... she's waiting to see if [her doctor] wants to give [her] growth factors to stimulate production of these cells OR still just wait and see how long it takes for them to come up on their own ..."


Needless to say my schedule has changed yet again, and I am getting more and more frusterated with this situation-NOT at my mom just at the disease and her cells that are preventing her from moving forward in this process.

So prayers for her counts to bounce back so she can start chemo (Round 2), and patience and peace for all of us, as well as good health for my mom and sister would be appreciated.

And if you have some free time I could use some company this week. I keep tightening my schedule so I am available for my mom during chemo and it keeps being postponed so I could use some distraction. Thanks.