Thursday, July 19, 2012

Stem cell collection

So even though Case has cancer in his bone marrow, he still has "rock star bone marrow!" His blood counts have recovered at lightning speed, like they usually do. So the doctors had to hurry and slip him in for surgery last minute to put in place the tubing that will pump his blood out so that the stem cells can be collected. Once they are separated, his blood will be pumped back into him.

It's nice to have that happen ahead of schedule. We start tomorrow. Then we will wait for a CT scan next week to see if we have any shrinkage in the tumors. If all we see is growth, then we wont do chemo because there is no point in pumping him full of poisons that aren't working. If there is some positive progress, then he will get some crazy, super dooper high doses of chemo that will destroy his bone marrow, hence the need for his own stem cells to "rescue" himself.

He ate half a slice of pizza after surgery today. That was a nice treat to see, as he usually eats one pretzel stick a day. He was feisty too...and nice change from zombie mode.

Pray for good collection and for the chemo to be working! The red and blue tubes are the catheter. The other tube under the gauze is his blasted chest tube.

11 comments:

  1. Yay for pizza and rock star bone marrow! You are in our prayers sweet boy!
    Love you all!

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  2. Of course Case is a rock star!! Yay for eating pizza and yay for feisty!! You can do it, Case! Definitely praying for a good collection and for the chemo to work its magic. xoxoxo

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  3. He is a rock star!!! What a trooper! Lots and lots of prayers for Case! Xoxoxo!!!

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  4. WOOHOO!!! Go, Case, GO!!! He is such a stud. I was truly amazed the other day. How can someone so small teach the world so much? Case, you are the man!! xoxo.

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  5. What a fighter he is!!! He is going to do great things in life.

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  6. Case, The fiesty ROCK STAR! We celebrate the victory of rebounding blood counts and pray for a successful stem cell collection.


    We know a wee boy who's tough as West Texas weather
    Who's kickin' his cancer in boots made of leather
    He wrestles, he rolls giving hospital staff fits
    While battling the "C" with his Rock Star fist hits
    Case is a winner we all will agree
    Celebrating his victories one, two and three!

    Fight on, wee boy! You are loved.

    AJ and Cindy

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  7. Praying, praying, praying...

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  8. The silver lining is that his counts came back so quickly and are so high that he should only need one day of collection and should collect a TON of cells! I'm ready to get those cells here in our lab, so I can get counts and give you guys some good news!

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  9. Such great news to have great bone marrow counts! I am here in Utah right now, and all of our family asks about Case. He is very loved and many people are praying for him. We too are praying for this round of chemo to kick that cancer to the curb! Love you guys and look forward to seeing you again soon.

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  10. Oh my Case! Praying for you and for him and for good collection and more pizza eating and more feisty days ahead, etc. etc.

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  11. Feist away Little man! Ben is convinced pizza can cure all ills! We are praying for a successful collection and that the chemo will do it job on those wicked cancer cells! Love you guys! the bradfords

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