July 3rd, Day +43
Hi Everyone,
I am posting early today because we were on the road at 5:30am so it feels like bedtime to us!! Great news today. The +30 Day Bone Marrow Biopsy came back with good results – no CLL was found and no neoplasm (whatever that is)!! It was good news and that’s all we care about at this time. Don’t necessarily need to know all the technical stuff. They will still have to look at the results of the Pet-scan from today to know if we are totally in the clear. The doctors did say that Day +100 results are the official ones so we will still be doing our count up to Day 100!Â
Mike did well today getting up at 4:30am and heading out. We got home around 2:00. He is doing well and trying to do his exercises but his legs and feet are still very water-logged! We now need to wrap his legs with ace bandages and he is on another med to help reduce the fluids. On Thursday we will head back to Ann Arbor for labs, clinic and an infusion there that should also help to bring the fluids down.
I’ll keep you posted! But thanks for all the support and prayers. We definitely see many great answers through the good results on his tests.
love, Ann
July 3rd, 2007 at 8:36 pm
My mom and I have been keeping up to date with Mike’s progress through this website. We are friends of “The Mom” from church, and we wanted to let Mike know that we are routing for him!! Hang in there, Mike. I am a RN and graduate of UM Ann Arbor’s nursing school, so I know that you are in the best possible hands there. That place is filled with so many of God’s angels! They do wonderful work!
I wanted to provide you with a few tricks of the trade so to speak, Mike. I read in the latest postings that you are having trouble with fluid retention. I have a few suggestions that may come in handy…you may have already tried them, I’m not sure. The most important advice I can give you is to make sure to keep your feet elevated whenever you are sitting or lying down. A foot stool or an extra table chair are great things to put your feet up on when you are sitting down and can do a world of good for swollen legs and feet, especially if you don’t have a reclining chair. Also, when you are lying down, try to put a couple pillows under your legs/feet to elevate them a little higher than the rest of your body. This will help move all of that extra fluid out of your lower extremities and your body will then excrete it naturally, with the assistance of your medications, that is.
I have also found another natural method very helpful…massage!! No, I’m not just saying that to get you some pampering, however deserved it is!! haha. Really though, check with your dr or physical therapist to make sure it isn’t contraindicated for you, but I have found that it works really well. Your therapist should at least be able to provide you guys with tips for doing it the right way. Some PT companies also provide massage as a type of therapy to assist patients in the healing process. In other words, your physical therapist might be able to include it into your current routine. You can discuss it with her during her next visit. She should be able to tell you if it’s something she can help you with or not. It’s worth a try.
Please let me know if there is anything that I can do for you guys. You have such a great family, and your mom is like a nurse in training…doing a wonderful job too, from one caretaker to another! Take care of yourself, and remember to take things one day at a time. None of us knows what tomorrow will bring, so just try to make today the best day possible and worry about tomorrow when it comes. God Bless, and we’ll keep you in our thoughts and prayers. No worries, Mike…God has his angels working overtime up there for you, and that’s something that you can be sure of!!
Thinking of you,
Alice Michel, RN