We got bad news this fall with Tom. His cancer is back, and his only treatment option is to undergo a stem cell transplant with some wicked chemo treatments. He will be at Emory, which is the best in our area. This is going to rough on everyone with the worst of it on Tom. Please keep him in your thoughts as he embarks on this journey of recovery. Tom is a very stubborn person, and this is good in terms of fighting back against the cancer. Not so good for almost everything else though!!! I buzzed his head as he started getting thin from the chemo, and the girls did not like it one bit. They bought him a new hat to wear to keep his head protected.
Update(Jan):
Tom made it past the 100 day mark post transplant with little issues. They will be slowly taking him off all his medicines to get him back to the new normal. He’s had some difficulty with swelling to his feet which is a common side effect to the medicine and IV fluids. We’re hoping for an easy transition into the no medicine phase. He had some of his spinal fluid test positive for cancer cells, and the thought behind that is he needs to allow the transplant cells to take over to eradicate those cancer cells. So they are taking him off the medicine that has been keeping the cells from completely taking over. Wish him luck!
Update(Mar):
Tom had a little set back. He ran into graft vs. host issues. It looks like it affected his liver, mouth, skin, and guts. He has some nerve issues with pain, and it has been bothering him pretty bad. His diet tanked it for a while, and his is working on getting his appetite back. He’s going to work on the balance between up and walking and resting. He also has some difficulty with sleeping. So, keep him in your thoughts again as he tries to get back on the mend!
