Week 5

I can't believe it has been 5 weeks already. Clinic went good as usual again, I gained 7 lbs. give or take a pound or 2. The Dr. was very pleased with this as am I. I have some blood pressure problems again so I got another pill added this week to control that. I also started to feel what I would call normal again this week, for a while I felt like I would never be normal again but I guess that too will pass, thank God for that. I have good news about Mike Cooper, after his operation he was back in general population most of last week and yesterday he looked pretty good. Brother Bill is still in the hospital but was looking better than he did tuesday, we may see him again today. Mike Malouff had a set back, nausea set in and thursday evening they went to the hospital and were admitted. Mike had to have the tubes reinserted into his stomach again to drain it, he said it was better than puking and Patty said last night that he had drained lots of stuff and the swelling had gone down, we will see how he is today hopefully it isn't serious enough for more surgery. Well once again thanks for your prayers and support for me , Donna and my new extended family here. Till next time we Love ya, Mike & Donna

More Progress

Lookout big "D" Mikey is behind the wheel again. Clinic went good again yesterday the Dr. put me back behind the wheel, he lowered the neoral (rejection med), no sleeping pills & only 2 ultram (muscle relaxers) instead of 3. I now only have to take meds 3 times a day instead of 4, no more bedtime meds. My second chemo and the nurse said the first treatment sometimes caused hair loss, well my second treatment didn't cause any hair loss or nausea. There is a member of our group named Bill Milam and he is a preacher and he had a blood flow problem and wound up back in the hospital last friday and had to have 3 surgery's, the last 2 were for bleeding. He was transplanted in January which would have put him close to his 3 months, now he starts over again so if you have room for another name on your prayer list please put Bill on it, he and his wife (Georgaetta) have said many prayers for all of us in the group and he has been a great support to many of us. Mike Cooper was operated on again on friday for bile duct repair and we didn't get to see him yesterday while at the hospital but his wife said he was doing ok even though he had had a bad nitght, so lets say another prayer or two for Mike & DeAnn, the care givers are a very important part patient recovery and don't need to be overlooked especially for those whom are having problems. I could not have made it without Donna and thank God she was here with me to help me through this. Well that's about it till friday or till something exciting happens.

Week #4

Well yesterday was 4 weeks since the transplant. I am feeling good most of the time but still have a bad day every now & then. The clinic went well this time except I lost a couple of pounds so I have to take megestrol to increase my appetite and I have to take one more rapamune (rejection drug) than before. Donna & I sure are home sick, hopefully we can come home in 4 more weeks, at that time I only have 1 clinic a week so I can go home & drive back here 1 day a week. Update on our friend Mike Malouff, he is doing great and may get out of the hospital today (saturday). Update on our friend Mike Cooper, he went back to the hospital yesterday evening for his 3rd operation, please say a prayer for him. Thanks to everyone for the prayers & support it really does help me in my time of need. We love you all, Mike & Donna.

First Chemo

Well yesterday was another typical day @ the clinic, all was well no change in meds and another "your doing fine" from Dr. Randall. We did see Mike Cooper there (he was transplanted the morning that i was) and he has to go back for his 3rd surgery, so if any of you have room for one more name on your prayer list add him please, thank you. My first chemo went fine, it was an I V push which means they had to stick me again,but that doesn't bother me anymore, and while the I V of saline was running the nurse injected a syringe full of chemo. I didn't feel sick afterwards nor do I today but I lost a bunch of hair on my pillow and in the bathtub. I was told the amount of chemo was small and should not cause a hair loss, we'll see. Donna & I slipped off to Shreveport after my chemo treatment for 2 nights just to get away and see how I handle travel, I did fine. Mike Malouff was doing fine yesterday, we saw him in the morning and he is looking good even though he thinks he's dieing, been there done that. Well that's about it till next time.
Love Mikey & Donna

About Mike Malouff

This has been such a sharing experience, Mike & his wife Patty were here before I went to surgery and when I came out. I am so proud to say my wife Donna & I were there for Mike & Patty before & after his surgery. Donna is trying to get them to start a blog too. Speaking of the blog I need to thank Uncle Jack, he suggested the blog and it has worked out so well, Thank you Uncle Jack. Well that's about it till Tuesday or something exciting happens. Later.

Staple Free

As of yesterday he has no more staples. I think this is gonna make him feel even better, he said at first though it really felt funny without them. All the test results were good again which means he has tolerated the reduction in medication good so far. They did not remove any more meds this time but didn't add any so that is good. The Dr did tell him to not be in such a hurry to be completely well, he has to remember, he has just been hit by a Mack truck and it is gonna take a little while to get over it!!We do have some more good news. Our friends we met here on our week of evaluations, Patti & Mike Maloouff, have been here waiting on a liver for Mike M since we got here for Mike's transplant and he is now in surgery as I speak! So please we would appreciate all your prayers for them as well and just hope he does as well as Mike has done.

Interesting Info

When we went to clinic today,he was doing well again!He is still having some issues with his kidneys, so they lowered his rejection meds since that is what is causing the kidney damage. Now we just wait to make sure he doesn't try to reject with the medication lowered. This is what they are planning on doing over a period of time any way, the goal is to get the meds down as low as possible and still protect the liver. So they didn't remove anything this time but did lower the dosage. But the interesting thing we learned was when they did the pathology on Mike's liver after the transplant they found that one of the tumors was in fact 5cm. not the 3.5 we had thought it was and if they had known it was this large he would not have gotten the transplant... he said the MRI gave a false reading on the size and sometimes that happens. So the bottom line is there was a mistake made and it was ALL to our benefit because otherwise he would have just had to get treatment and wait and see if the cancer spread to the rest of his body or not. So we can thank God for one more thing now. He will start his 20 week round of chemo next Tuesday but they still say it is a very small dose and shouldn't make him sick. All in all he is doing real good. Jen, Tyson, Shawn, Kailynn, Logan, Staci, Bobby and their girls have been here for a few days and we all went to the zoo on Monday, he made it just fine.He has been tired today but is still doing as well or better than most of the people we are going to clinic with that have also had transplants.He isn't driving yet and not real sure when that will come about. He gets his staples out on Friday and I know that will make him feel better. I will let every one know how he does after the first chemo.

Report

Well we had another good visit at the clinic today. They took Mike off 2 meds today but his blood pressure was so low we had to go back to the transplant floor and get a liter of saline IV to bring it back up. It took about an hour or so and did make him feel better.He was on 2 BP meds and now they have changed it to just one so maybe it wont go low again. The Dr said he was doing very well and all his liver functions are looking very good. They also told us today that the last month he is in clinic we can go home and just drive back once a week if we want to. It will actually cost more , but I am sure by the time it gets here we are gonna both be saying we don't care we will be ready to go home and make the drive every week. So everyone at the flower shop it is looking like I will be home in time for Mother's Day!!!! Now wasn't it nice of Mike to work this out so I wont have to miss any work..... I will sign off now until next weeks clinic visit.

UPDATE

Well we went to clinics today and they said he was doing great. His lab work is looking better every time. He was getting concerned because he was so tired but the Dr. told him this was normal considering he had just had a HUGE operation. I think that made him feel alot better about things, I think he was afraid he was not doing so well because of this. He is still on almost all the meds but hopefully they will start taking him off of some of these next week if we are lucky. we did go run some errands this afternoon and he did really well while we were out. He won't be me.able to drive for several more weeks though. But all in all this first week has been pretty good, I will post again after we see the Dr next time.

Hung up in Big D

Well I've been out of the hospital 3 days and have been feeling better everyday. Thanks to all of you who have prayed for me and are still praying for me,it worked lol. My family has been great also, and then there's Donna, God bless her soo much. I will have lab work twice a week as Donna posted, checking & rechecking my meds. I took 2 pills a day before this and now it is 22, I sure hope they get that trimmed down some. I haven't gotten high speed internet yet but we are still looking, 3 months of dial up just ain't gonna work. You won't believe how long this has takin me to do (wrighting this post) I am so slow at anything. Later Love you all and God Bless You all.

OUT

We got out about 1 or so and made it home fine. Mike & Dad stayed here and Mom & I went to buy groceries since we had absolutely nothing here. He is doing really well I think of course he is thinking he really should be better than he is. We got to clinic in the morning at 7 for the first time. These will be twice a week appointments. We did find out he will have to have 20 weeks of chemo since they didn't get the last tumor treated before surgery but they said this precautionary. This will be about 1/6th the amount that they give to some one with breast cancer, so there is not suppose to be much in the way of side effects. Here is the number of the apartment
214-826-4126
Staci & Madison are coming down this weekend and not sure how long Mom & Dad are gonna stay but I am sure it will be through the weekend anyway. Talk to you all later