1-23-07

Main Page . John's Journal (2000-2003) . CLL Information . Contact John . Seattle Cancer Care Alliance . MD Anderson

January 23, 2007

“Being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully.”

Col 1:11

This past Christmas the most special gift I received was that of my family. There is no way I could have made it through the trials of the past year without them. They are the most important people in the world to me. I know it is a blessing to still be here with them and for that I am extremely grateful. I pray for God’s grace to continue in 2007 and beyond.

I am going to spend my time in this journal entry doing a few family updates and finish with medical updates. I don’t have much as far as photos of medical procedures because I haven’t had many done lately. Mainly blood draws every couple weeks. I’ve had some spinal taps, but I don’t have photos of that. I was too nervous and forgot to photograph the procedures. So, moving on with some family updates.

Family picture taken on Christmas Eve.

My oldest son plays basketball for Rogers High School. His team came over for lunch on Martin Luther King Day as there was no school that day. Michelle set up a Taco Bar and the boys devoured every bit of the food. They came over right after a morning practice so they were definitely hungry. Rogers hopes to go to the playoffs, but they will have to win most of their remaining games to do so.

CJ’s basketball team at our home for lunch.

Snow caused the boys to miss a week of school this past month. They managed to keep busy. CJ and his girlfriend made a snowman in the backyard one day. The snow was fun but we’re done missing school days.

I included some photos of CJ below. He is enjoying his basketball season and is hopeful for the chance to see some post season play. He has playing very well this season and is one of the league's top scorers. Going to his games is very fun and exciting.

Kyler is wrapping up his school wrestling season. Last year he won the league championship and this year he won it again. He’s got some decisions to make regarding whether he’ll play basketball or wrestle next year. I’m sure he'll have fun doing either one.

Our youngest, Tanner, has enjoyed playing basketball this past winter. He is really improving and loves playing. With Tanner and the other two all involved in sports there isn’t much spare time as we struggle to attend everything.

Talking about the medical stuff will be pretty easy, for the last several months have basically been spent recovering at home from the brain infection I contracted back in August. Pretty much everything is improving. My most recent blood test was excellent. My Hematocrit was 41.5 (You may remember me having levels in the low 30’s or high 20’s), platelets were over 200 (been as low as 25), and my white blood cells are normal at 6,000. If my CLL was acting up the white blood cells would come up to over 10,000. As far as blood counts I’m very normal and I’m so glad considering I’m coming up on my three year transplant anniversary.

I had a spinal tap lately where they use a long needle, insert it into your lower spine, and draw spinal fluid out of your spine using a syringe. It’s a bit painful, but the nurse assistant is a former student of mine and always makes the procedures go better. I have the test every six weeks. Each time my viral counts from my brain infection this past August have decreased. The time before last my viral counts were down to 94. (The counts were in the several hundreds in months past.) We have been happy to see a steady decline in the virus count. The goal is to get to zero viruses. Unfortunately the latest test just came back and the viral numbers went up to 140. My doctor agrees with me that this isn’t the direction we want to go. However, she said this is a mild fluctuation and hopefully it will be back down when we check again in about 5 weeks. She told me not to panic or worry. I told her I would focus on the positive and pray for good results from the next test. One good thing about the Spinal Tap results was my Protein level. When I was really sick back in September those levels were very high. My recent test shows the Protein levels are back to normal, which doctor said is excellent news. So I must say I’m concerned about the increase, but with everything else looking so good I am confident everything will smooth out and continue to move in a positive direction. The picture below was taken when I was hospitalized last September. Looking at that picture and others I can tell I’ve improved so much. My weight is up about 20 pounds; my mind is much, much clearer. My doctor thinks I look amazing and am a miracle to be recovering the way I am. I guess most people don’t recover from this infection. For now I continue the fight. I will not give up. I have so much to live for. A loving God, a loving family, and a life I love immensely. Thank you to all of you who faithfully pray for and think about our family. We are so grateful for each of you. You, along with the Lord, are our strength.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1. My son CJ battles a knee injury that won’t heal and it impairs his performance on the basketball court. Please pray for healing and patience.

2. Michelle’s teaching becomes easier. She loves teaching but the workload is taking its toll on her. Pray for her to be as efficient as possible and for her workload to ease up a bit.

3. My friends Mary Fore, Karen Kramp, and Karen Gustafson as they face their battles with cancer. Pray to heal all of them completely.

4. Sadly, I have to share the news that Cliff Coppelman recently passed away. Please keep his wife, two grown daughters and grandchildren in your prayers.

5. Pray my next Spinal Tap on February 21st goes smoothly and gives us results that show a decrease in the viral cells still present in me.

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