#RoundThree

We started 2015 with a bang.  John was back to work, and we were slowly sliding into normal.  Then, he got a cough…. the dreaded cough.  “sometimes a cough is just a cough” they said.  Not with John.  Captain go big or go home was at it again.  His cough wasn’t caused by his lungs this time, but rather fluid building around his lungs.  We made several trips to the hospital to have fluid drained via thoracentesis procedure.  At the same time that this was all happening, John’s dad Tom was admitted to the hospital for what we later found out was bladder cancer.  I actually drove John home from his procedure, hit a drive thru, and went back to the hospital to sit with Cathy while Tom was in procedure.  It’s bad enough to fear that your husband has relapsed, but its even worse to have to tell him that his father has cancer as well.  (Tom is perfectly fine now!)  According to the picture above, apparently March 12 was when we got the relapse news.  If only Eric would have kept the Nickelback tickets that he had won……..because John had registered him in a radio contest!!  Bahahahahaha

Round three is what changed me the most.  I am thankful that his treatment didn’t make him sick, and we were able to spend some time at his Adult Disneyland, Las Vegas.  We ate at nearly all the places he wanted to, and I won some serious coin.  #bigwinner  What made the biggest impact on me was that about a month into Johns treatment, I got a phonecall from a good friend.   A PHONECALL.  We didn’t talk often at the time, but when we did it was via text.  Pretty sure we had only called about important stuff…. When we got engaged, and both times she was pregnant.  I will never forget how she told me.   “We have something in common…..we are pretty sure my husband has lymphoma”  WHAAATTTT?!?!?  How can this be happening?  Is this real?  I know she was thrown off, because they were going through the McDonalds drive through, and she never fed her kids McDonalds.  It is so crazy, but I almost went into caretaker mode for her.   Here’s what you need to know…. and I gave her a list of testing that would be done.  They went to the same clinic that we did, and were familiarized with all of the staff.  He did have lymphoma, and was able to compare some notes with John.  As crazy as it sounds, I am blessed that this awful situation brought us closer together.  We have both talked each other off a ledge more times than can be counted, or maybe just listened when each other needed to vent.  Now we think its been a whole year if we haven’t seen each other/talked or text in a week!  Some of my very favorite hashtags came out of this.   #lymphomaisaloser #Ihatestinkypetecancer and #lymphomawives (forever!)  (Also, her husband has been in the clear for almost 2 years!!)

With this relapse…. John was treatable, but not necessarily curable.  He would be on maintenance chemo forever.  At his 6 month scan, everything that was on his previous scan was either completely gone, or was shrinking.  However, he had new lesions….on his liver.  LIVER…that nearly screams death sentence when vital organs are effected.  Dr G had given us some treatment options, and even used the white board printer thingy-ma jig that is in the exam room.  (We always wanted to see that thing in action!) Options included several drugs that we could potentially get from the drug companys, as our insurance wouldn’t cover drugs that weren’t FDA approved.  Our favorite nurse handed John a clipboard with the paperwork as we sat in the waiting area.  She said “don’t look at me, just sign were I put the X.”   She was visibly upset for us, and gave us her famous, most rough hug ever and sent us on our way.

We again were referred back to University of Chicago.  We got hooked up with Dr. B, the transplant dr.   This time, John would require a donor transplant.  75% chance there will be a 10/10 donor they said.  Ha!  Dr B clearly didn’t know John well….yet!  With no match in the database, we were given the option of a haplo cord transplant.  Ya see, we have no kids, he had no siblings, so the next best match was a parent at a 50% match.  They explained that they would harvest a parents cells via a central line, and then infuse them into John, with a cord blood chaser.

A few things YOU should know:

A) Sign up to be a bone marrow donor!  It is SO easy to register, and as long as they are harvesting only stem cells, actually donating is relatively painless.   I’ll just leave the website here     http://www.bethematch.org

B) If you are still of child birthing age, consider either KEEPING your cord blood, or DONATING it, so that lives like John’s can be saved!   If a had a link for that, I would drop it here.

Prior to the transplant, John took his famous BBQ trip, where he basically ate BBQ til his gut completely rotted.  We also took a trip to Kansas City, where we ate more BBQ, and visited his best friend, and his uncle’s family.  The drug that rid him of the cancer this time, was FDA approved about 6 months after John was finished taking it!!