Two months ago today, on May 30, Eric stood up quickly at work and almost passed out. He had been feeling tired for the past couple of months and I had been pushing him to go to the doctor. On impulse Eric picked up the phone and called his doctor, asking if he could be seen as soon as possible. Twenty minutes later Eric was at the doctor's office and they were drawing blood for lab work. Eric went back to work after the exam and as he was leaving the office to come home that night, his doctor called and told him that the blood work showed that something was severely wrong. Eric was to go see a hematologist oncologist first thing the next morning for a probably diagnosis of bone marrow cancer.
And with those words our life has changed. The first few weeks Eric was in pretty good shape and continued to swim a mile in the morning and go to work. He even walked an hour at noon a few more times. This cancer thing didn't seem all that bad. Even when the doctor told Eric he couldn't swim anymore because of the risk of infection from the less than sanitary pool water, it didn't seem that bad because now we could walk together in the morning for 45 minutes to an hour.
Things started to go downhill pretty fast after those first few weeks. Eric's pain increased, his mobility decreased. Our walks became shorter and shorter, finally stopping altogether. Soon Eric was on morphine, and then double doses of morphine to fight the constant pain associated with having twice as much bone marrow in the bone marrow cavity as there is supposed to be. Bones don't stretch and grow to accommodate cancer like other areas of the body do. Twenty-four hours a day Eric moved from place to place, trying to find a comfortable spot to rest. He was chronically sleep deprived, never getting more than 30 to 40 minutes of rest at a time. Eric was pretty low a couple of weeks ago, almost zombie like he was so tired, so drugged out, so fatigued and in so much pain.
July 18 Eric was admitted to LDS hospital to get an emergency transfusion of three pints of whole blood. That was a turning point for him. He really felt rejuvenated after the transfusion and his red blood count stayed up for a remarkably long time.
July 20 Eric was stable enough that they could start his second round of low dose chemo. Within just a couple of days Eric was feeling so much better that he cut his morphine dose in half. He regained some of his mobility and flexibility as the chemo stopped the cancer from progressing. We started walking again and increased the distance on good days. Eric started sleeping for longer periods of time and was able to stay awake for longer periods during the day.
July 22 we received the fabulous news that Eric's sister Debbie was a match! Before the transfusion on the 18th and the start of chemo on the 20th, Eric wasn't sure he could make it long enough for a match to be found. We were pretty discouraged. So to find out that we had a match and to see Eric feeling better, we felt that our prayers had been answered in the best possible way.
Yesterday morning our coordinator called to say that she was busy lining up all the things that needed to be put in place, and should be able to give us a timeline for the bone marrow transplant in a couple of days. Hooray! We know that the next few months are going to be very difficult and push us to our very limit, but we are eager to get started.
Right now the most worrisome thing is Eric's platelet count. He is
having platelet transfusions every few days, but the numbers keep free
falling lower and lower. We are so appreciative of all those wonderful
people who donate their blood and their platelets. They are heroes!
Eric honestly would not be alive if it weren't for them.
We are grateful for the many kind visits and calls and emails and cards. We are grateful for the wonderful food that has been shared with us. Eric may be losing weight, as is common with cancer, but it is not for lack of delicious food. We are grateful for all of your prayers on our behalf. It means so much to us! We could not do this on our own. We feel very loved and very supported, both by our family and friends, and also by the Lord. We know that we are not alone during this trial and are humbled at the mercy and grace of the Lord.
From Eric: Interesting read! I missed a lot of this over the past several weeks. Nice to read what ML has to say to see how the Lord has carried me and how each of you, from the incomparable MaryLynn on down the list, have lent to me your faith and your service, your kindest thoughts and love to bear me forward in an hour of great weakness. God bless each of you. ECO
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