Hey everyone,
Chris checks in tomorrow morning for the last of his chemo treatments. He'll be at the hospital until Dec 21 and then it's home for the holidays! He's really psyched to be finishing the last of his chemo before Xmas and New Years. He is feeling really excellent, has been working out, and is looking forward to the new year. As always, Anne will be staying with Chris in the hospital and she even baked a truck load of cookies for all the nurses (not that they need bribing or anything as Chris is basically the patient all the nurses fight over--I kid you not, he's like some kind of celeb there; the nurses swarm him when he arrives!).
After Chris finishes this treatment they will check his blood every two weeks and perform a bone marrow biopsy every other month so as to closely monitor any changes in his health. We know that he is going to do great.
Chris and Anne are still looking into a trial in TX and the doctor said that he may be able to amend the trial protocol so that Chris can do the treatment in Chicago. This is up in the air right now, but perhaps this is something Chris will do.
All of the Maddens send their good wishes to you this holiday season. Most of all we send all of you our thanks for supporting Chris this past year. There are a lot of you on this list who came to drives, joined the registry, encouraged your friends and families to do the same, some of you even ran half-marathons in support of Chris!! There are even people on this list who have never met Chris or anyone in my family who did donor kits for him because you heard about his situation. All of this support continues to amaze me and we can't thank you enough.
Wishing you all a happy, healthy New Year.
YM
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Saturday, November 24, 2007
HAPPY THANKSGIVING
Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. The Maddens are feasting in Door County and are having a great holiday. Chris is doing really well and is happy to be able to get out of town for a while, which we are all particularly thankful for. He and Annie are spoiling Lucas and Uncle "KiKi" has edged out Auntie "Mima" as Lucas's fave playmate/minion.
Chris has a check up on Nov 30 and will find out the schedule for his fourth and final (yeah!!) consolidation chemo. We are thinking that, hopefully, it will begin after Xmas. This means that Chris will likely be "done" with treatment and recovery from treatment by the end of January/beginning of February.
The consolidation chemo that Chris is doing is the standard, most effective therapy for AML patients who do not have to go immediately to transplant. When people finish con. chemo, the hope is that it has "cured" the AML and the person will remain in remission. Once a person hits the 3 year mark of remission, that is a really good indicator that the AML will never return. There are many people out there who are in remission many years out. There are also many people out there who must move to transplant because their AML relapses. This is part of the reason we are interested in looking at clinical trials that might improve the chances of remission "sticking." Right now "maintenance" therapy is not really a standard part of AML treatmet, but research is moving in that direction. So, there are not a lot of trials geared toward Chris's situation, but there are some, and I think there will be a lot more in the near future.
Right now we have narrowed the trials to one at MD Anderson in Texas and one in Cleveland. Chris is not positive he wants to do either of these, but he is considering them. Frequency of travel for the trial is a big consideration for him as he's starting to consider when he can return to work and get back to a schedule that is closer to what he's used to.
So that's the update. Take care and good wishes for happy, healthy holidays.
YM
PLEASE REMEMBER TO ENCOURAGE FAMILY AND FRIENDS TO BECOME STEM CELL/CORD BLOOD DONORS. SAVE A LIFE!
Chris has a check up on Nov 30 and will find out the schedule for his fourth and final (yeah!!) consolidation chemo. We are thinking that, hopefully, it will begin after Xmas. This means that Chris will likely be "done" with treatment and recovery from treatment by the end of January/beginning of February.
The consolidation chemo that Chris is doing is the standard, most effective therapy for AML patients who do not have to go immediately to transplant. When people finish con. chemo, the hope is that it has "cured" the AML and the person will remain in remission. Once a person hits the 3 year mark of remission, that is a really good indicator that the AML will never return. There are many people out there who are in remission many years out. There are also many people out there who must move to transplant because their AML relapses. This is part of the reason we are interested in looking at clinical trials that might improve the chances of remission "sticking." Right now "maintenance" therapy is not really a standard part of AML treatmet, but research is moving in that direction. So, there are not a lot of trials geared toward Chris's situation, but there are some, and I think there will be a lot more in the near future.
Right now we have narrowed the trials to one at MD Anderson in Texas and one in Cleveland. Chris is not positive he wants to do either of these, but he is considering them. Frequency of travel for the trial is a big consideration for him as he's starting to consider when he can return to work and get back to a schedule that is closer to what he's used to.
So that's the update. Take care and good wishes for happy, healthy holidays.
YM
PLEASE REMEMBER TO ENCOURAGE FAMILY AND FRIENDS TO BECOME STEM CELL/CORD BLOOD DONORS. SAVE A LIFE!
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Counts and Clinical Trials...
Hi all,
Chris is riding out his neutropenic stage (the time after chemo where his white counts/platelets drop very low), and it looks like he might be on the upswing as of today. We're hoping his counts will be back up by the end of the weekend. He has to take it pretty easy while he's neutropenic since he's far more susceptible to infections. So, we've duct taped him to a couch to keep him from messing around the house too much. Kidding. But, Margaret, Lucas, and I are in Des Moines visiting Craig and Rosco while Chris's counts come back.
Annie and I have been busy looking at different clinical trials out there for people with Chris's treatment plan. We've found 3 interesting trials that are meant to help keep patients who have done chemo (instead of transplant) in remission, so this is something we're looking into. Hopefully one of these trials might be something Chris can do.
Hope you all are well.
REMEMBER TO ENCOURAGE FRIENDS AND FAMILY TO BECOME STEM CELL DONORS/CORD BLOOD DONORS TODAY!
Chris is riding out his neutropenic stage (the time after chemo where his white counts/platelets drop very low), and it looks like he might be on the upswing as of today. We're hoping his counts will be back up by the end of the weekend. He has to take it pretty easy while he's neutropenic since he's far more susceptible to infections. So, we've duct taped him to a couch to keep him from messing around the house too much. Kidding. But, Margaret, Lucas, and I are in Des Moines visiting Craig and Rosco while Chris's counts come back.
Annie and I have been busy looking at different clinical trials out there for people with Chris's treatment plan. We've found 3 interesting trials that are meant to help keep patients who have done chemo (instead of transplant) in remission, so this is something we're looking into. Hopefully one of these trials might be something Chris can do.
Hope you all are well.
REMEMBER TO ENCOURAGE FRIENDS AND FAMILY TO BECOME STEM CELL DONORS/CORD BLOOD DONORS TODAY!
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
OCTOBER 31 UPDATE
HI ALL,
Chris finished his third round of chemo on Saturday and is doing really well. He has several house projects going on right now--new roof, new fence, more evergreeens--so he's keeping himself very busy. He is feeling really strong and we have to watch him or we might find him up on top of the house helping the roofers! Anne is doing really well, too. She's working hard and has worked out a great scheduele so that she can be at treatments with Chris and have time at home, too. We're looking forward to our nephew Lucas's visit on Monday. Lucas and Margaret will stay for a month and Gerado will join us for Thanksgiving. We are psyched to have the whole family together for T-Giving and especially thankful and happy that Chris is doing so well and is coming up on the end of his chemo threatment (he'll likely be done with chemo by the New Year). 2007 has been a hard year, but Chris is stronger than ever and 2008 is going to be great.
Take care, and we'll keep you updated.
REMEMBER TO ENCOURAGE YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY TO BECOME STEM CELL DONORS TODAY!
Chris finished his third round of chemo on Saturday and is doing really well. He has several house projects going on right now--new roof, new fence, more evergreeens--so he's keeping himself very busy. He is feeling really strong and we have to watch him or we might find him up on top of the house helping the roofers! Anne is doing really well, too. She's working hard and has worked out a great scheduele so that she can be at treatments with Chris and have time at home, too. We're looking forward to our nephew Lucas's visit on Monday. Lucas and Margaret will stay for a month and Gerado will join us for Thanksgiving. We are psyched to have the whole family together for T-Giving and especially thankful and happy that Chris is doing so well and is coming up on the end of his chemo threatment (he'll likely be done with chemo by the New Year). 2007 has been a hard year, but Chris is stronger than ever and 2008 is going to be great.
Take care, and we'll keep you updated.
REMEMBER TO ENCOURAGE YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY TO BECOME STEM CELL DONORS TODAY!
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