September 29

Good afternoon. Here is an update as I know it. Randi is currently in the hospital with a fungal pneumonia. It will take her several weeks to kick this. They are currently looking for people to donate blood of some sort (I'm not sure what kind or type) on a weekly basis for her. Here is the kicker, they have to live in the Houston area and be willing to follow some rules. If you know any one in that area who may be willing to help please let us know, asap. You can get in touch with Geoff or myself. I will forward the info to Geoff.
The transplant is still on track, this should not change those plans.

Thanks for the prayers.
Ali

Well good morning all!

It is a very good morning. We met with Dr. Champlin the transplant Dr. yesterday afternoon. we have a date. October 26 is the day of transplant! woohoo!  we are very excited and a little scared but it is great to have a date and moving forward. The transplant team is very excited I have Three donors from the national registry that are 10 out of 10 matches. because they had the luxury of Three donors they checked another two markers and one matched on both of those so they went a little further and checked two more markers and they matched on one of those. So what we know right know is that my donor is a 49 year old female that matches on 13 out of 14 markers which is really great! She is blood type O- so my blood type will change from O+ to O- which is crazy. That is all we know of the donor now we do not know where she is or any personal info. 

Ok so a little about the process, I will be admitted 7 to 9 days before transplant for a final and scary round of chemo. the chemo will destroy all of my bone marrow to make way for the new cells. It will be a stem cell transplant so as for the actual transplant it will be like a blood transfusion. The cells are taken from the donor and the next day I will get them. Between now and the week before transplant I will have lots to do. I have to see a dentist and eye doc. get an EKG, and echocardiogram to make sure my heart is good and strong. basically a whole work up to make sure I am  good for transplant. I will also have another bone marrow biopsy closer to the transplant to see how many blasts are still there. We will go with transplant even if I am not in remission. 

well that is a lot of info so sorry if you're not a nerd like me and this is just rambling! But if any one has a question or wants to know more let me know. We are so excited and this month is gonna fly by so again Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts and gifts and all the support we would be lost without our wonderful family and friends. May God Bless and Hope All have  great day!!

with all my Love,

                 Randi

September 17

Hi, just a check update. Randi finished chemo last Friday, but is back in the hospital with a fever. I understand they got it under control with some tylenol. Yeah.. she should go home soon. I know she is tired and sleeping alot, and has some nausea. It is back to waiting again.

On a side note. Some of the extended family members have set up a fundraiser to help raise some money for Randi, to help take the boys on a trip to Disney. Kind of like make a wish. There is a raffle with 4 differnt items. Tickets are $10 each or 2 for $15. If you want more info email me at alik.1528@gmail.com.
Hopefully Randi will back online soon.
Please keep praying
Ali

Hello,

      So today is Tuesday 9/8/09 and it is the second day of chemo. I am feeling surprisingly good. this round of chemo is a little different from any of the other three. I am getting one called are-C which I have had before, and a second drug called fluderabene (have no idea how to spell that), which is one I have not had before, and the last one is a drug called mylotarg, it is a nasty drug and has some pretty yucky side effects. I had a dose of this drug in Alb. with the second round of chemo and it was not fun. It gave me uncontrollable chills and made feel pretty bad. So Geoff was concerned and wasn't looking forward to it. But I am super excited to say that it went well. The nurse we had was really great and said a little prayer when she saw the orders for it and came in and said it will be fine, and they gave me some demeral(spelling?) before they started the drug and then again an hour into the drug and I slept and had none of the same side effects. The nurse was so great and said see my God is good. Isn't that the truth! Our God is good.

Thank you Lord for little miracles and for your amazing love and comfort. I pray in Jesus name Amen.

And again thank you all for your prayers and thoughts and gifts and love and support. We are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends. We couldn't be so strong without each and everyone of you so we thank God everyday for his amazing grace and love to allow us to know all of you!

With all my love! May God bless,

                                                  Randi =)

              

Hello,

      Well we met with the leukemia doc today and I am sad to say it was not great news. while my platelets are still normal i have blasts in my peripheral blood which i have not had since may 31st. So sometime monday I will be admitted to start another round of chemo. this time it will be high dose Are-C which i had last time and also another chemo agent that starts with an F and ummm i forgot the name and couldn't spell it anyway. and also another dose of Mylatarg which i have had once before and it isn't a lot of fun. we should be in the hospital for 4 to 5 days and the chemo will run for 4 days.

I am excited for this weekend though, two of our youth group kids are here to visit, Matt and Kaitlyn.  We are so excited and it is very nice to have them here.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers! We love you and God bless,

Randi