Thursday was a wonderful, carefree, cancer free day.  After seven straight days of chemo, it was so nice to have a day without any doctor appointments, transfusions, infusions, chemo, lab work, etc.  Eric had planned to go into the office, but instead decided he needed the rest.  Smart man!  Because today was crazy!

We were gone from home 8 1/2 hours, and all of it was spent on cancer.  As we were driving home the theme song from Gilligan's Island kept running through my head: the part about "a three hour tour."  Hopefully we have now learned that nothing is short and easy in the cancer world, so take plenty of things to read and snacks to eat.

Our day started with a blood draw at our regular cancer clinic.  Eric's red and white blood cell levels were acceptable, but his platelets were really low and dropping so they recommended Eric have a platelet infusion.  Today.  The doctor's office threw their weight around and managed to get us worked into an already full day at LDS Hospital's infusion center.  Yeah.

We drove from the doctor's office to LDS Hospital where we first had more blood drawn from Eric's poor right arm (his left arm tends to be stingy, so his right arm has been amazing through all of this).  This blood draw was so they could prepare the platelet infusion to be given later that day. 

Then we headed up to meet our bone marrow cancer specialist team for the first time.  We walked into the waiting room and were greeted by Eric's dad and two brothers.  It was so great to see them there!!!  Eric's brothers were in town and had come to be tested to be stem cell donors for the bone marrow transplant.  How often do you have donors show up even before the actual patient?

Eric had a thorough physical, which he passed with flying colors, other than the fact he has bone marrow cancer and is consequently severely anemic, has a dramatically weakened immune system, and his blood won't clot.  

We then met with the bone marrow cancer specialist (M.D.) and our coordinator (who keeps it all organized) and also the woman who handles the insurance.  We were impressed with how informed, plain spoken, efficient and nice they all were.  We were handed our very own large, information filled, loose leaf binder titled "Intermountain Blood and Marrow Transplant Allogeneic Guidebook."  It has all the answers to all the questions we don't even know enough to ask.

Next Eric's sweet right arm had to be poked to draw the blood they would be using to find a suitable donor for his bone marrow transplant.  This time they left the IV in because we still had to get the platelet infusion.  So it was down to the infusion center for two units of platelets.  Fortunately, this is much faster than whole blood transfusions, because we had missed lunch and were now close to missing dinner.

So now that I have bored everyone with our sad story, here is what we learned today from the bone marrow doctor.  The doctor gave us a good idea of what the future would hold as far as how they prepare for a bone marrow transplant, do a bone marrow transplant, and what to expect afterwards.  But everything has to be fairly general and somewhat grim because the doctor wants us to be prepared for anything that comes up, and with cancer there are always going to be unknowns until they present themselves.  She didn't make us any promises or sugar coat anything.  It is going to be hard, but it is also most likely going to have a positive outcome.

As far as things specific to Eric, it is a real plus that he is in such great shape because he has reserves of strength to draw upon that a lot of cancer patients don't have.  They are still waiting for some of the information that is needed for the final decisions on what very specific type of bone marrow cancer Eric has.  And they will be checking his blood on a regular basis to see how quickly the cancer progresses and how the chemo he has had keeps it at bay. With six possible sibling donors, he has great odds of finding a match, and it will be quicker than if he has to go through the donor registry.  It will take 2 weeks to type his blood, and the blood of his siblings as they are tested.  If one of his brothers is a match, we could be starting with the transplant process in as soon as two weeks, longer if we have to wait for one of his sisters, who won't be tested until next week.

As always, we promise to keep you informed as soon as we learn anything.  We are looking forward to a quiet weekend.  Our next appointment is Tuesday afternoon, so we will report then if not sooner.  Thank you for your love and prayers.  It means a lot to us.