We have a Date

We had a full schedule in Iowa City on Wednesday this week. We started in Nuclear Medicine where I had a Mugascan which is a test where they determine the strength of your heart. They inject you with a tin substance in one arm and with radioactive stuff in the other and lay you on a table under a camera. (it looks a lot like a cat scan ) They watch you on camera and film your heart function for about a half hour then the heart specialists read your results. Anyway I passed. Then I went for labs they drew a lot of blood 15 vials some because they asked me to be in a research study, it will not do anything for me but they want to study my blood as I go through the transplant and after to see how I react to different things and how much graph to host disease I get. The purpose is to find out more about the disease so they may be able to help future patients who get what I have, they took four vials of blood for that test and they will freeze some of it for tests they haven't even been invented yet, they then can go get it and run those new tests. After that we went to Pulmanary Medicine and they had me sit in a little glass booth and you blow into a tube and have you do all kinds of tests to empty and fill your lungs you blow all the air out and then keep on blowing and blowing until they say you can stop (it really gets tiring) anyway I passed that test also but I was a little disappointed in the results of it, I thought I'd be really good at that one with all the stuff I've done over the years (running, hockey, etc,) and it was okay but not what I would have expected. (To much medicine for so long makes you short of breath) The primary reason for these tests is to be sure you are safe for the chemo but also to set a baseline so afterwards they can do them over and assesss any damage done by the medicines. Next we went to see Dr. Silverman who is the head of the transplant team, she is a really nice lady and explains things very well. She said its time to get it done and wanted to know if we had a date in mind. Penny and I were a little suprised we thought they would pick the date. Anyway they like you to decide within a window they provide to let you get things ready at home and to be mentally ready, I told her I was as mentally ready as I'd ever be and we decided to do the transplant on September 2. Dr Silverman said she has decided not to do the full body radiation on me (they were going back and forth on that) and just go with a very high dose chemotherapy she says she doesn't like to do the radiation on patients over 20 if she doesn't have to because it just does to much damage to your lungs. Chemotherapy is more likely to damage primarily the liver but at this point it is much safer for me to go ahead with that then not. I was happy that I won't have radiation I don't know much about it but people I know who have gone through it seem to really suffer for a while from the burns etc. so that was good news. I am releived to have a date it has been a long time coming and I am ready to move on. I am very grateful for my family and friends! People have been so good to me through the last year. Mostly I am grateful to God who has comforted me and been with me when I get scared. I will not go through anything that he did not endure and more. I know because of him I have that Future and a Hope that we wrote about months ago. I am perfectly at peace with what is coming although a little scared of the process and am looking forward to watching God work a Miracle in my life. Sometimes when I get frustrated that I can't do all the things I was accustomed to we look back on some of our old posts and read about how clearly Gods hand has been through this process and think about how weak we are. I used to read about the Israelites and how God would work these great miracles and they would turn around and forget. I tell myself don't be like that, remember what he has done for you. Regardlesss of the outcome of this transplant (and I do believe it will be successful) I am so blessed in this life and wouldn't change a thing.
Lance
P.S. Thanks to Sister Ella for letting us know the blog was broke its been nice to be back in touch.