Here We Go!

To All-

Although I've blogged before saying we're on our way, then they've pulled the plug, well now we're on our way. While I will tell you we've waited for this to begin for a long time it's not without some trepidation that's it's finally happening. As you can imagine the waiting we've already experienced has been hard, however knowing the real trying part of the process is now starting is truly more difficult. The cool part is that Ret is ready, the doc said if she wanted to wait to maybe enjoy the rest of the summer she could, but she said no let's get this thing started.

That said, we have our date set at the Hutch for September 10th, which seems a bit our there, but her Chemotherapy Mobilization will actually start before that at the clinic in Edmonds, that will be a 4 day chemo treatment followed by a 8 day rest period. After the rest period we'll head to the Hutch for the Stem Cell capture process which can take a few days depending on how many stem cells are captured in each session then following that she'll have another chemo session that will last an additional 4 days. The reason for the rest period is that the body, after being abused by the chemo, needs to have time to start healing itself thereby generating stem cells which is what is needed for the transplant. Again as I've said before I won't bore you with all the details but just enough to hopefully give you some understanding as to what Ret's experiencing.

How huge are friends and family when you need them most???? As I mentioned in my March 30th blog we need to be living within 15-20 minutes of the Hutch just in case Ret has any complications related to any type of illness that may develop so they can treat it as quickly as possible. Well here's how big.............................Ray Brandstrom has offered up his home, his privacy and his life to be invaded by Ret and I for a 3-4 month period to provide us the security we need to insure we get through as extremely treacherous time. While we graciously accepted his offer he was not the only one who extended a hand, but he was the closest, Ken and Janice Krekow offered their home as well as Bill Miller offering for us to stay at his home as well. As I've said before and I'll continue to say, I can't tell you how blessed we are to have all of you in our lives, you've made this very difficult journey as bearable as it could be.

Love you all.
Ret & Jack