Moving......

Wahoo! Celeste has finally begun to create white blood cells. On Monday her count was .2  Tues morning she was at .4 by afternoon she tested at .6    That is the good news!.
She is still in a very precarious place fighting the battle with her lungs and continuing high fevers. IV nutrition was started Tues. night.
   First thing this morning she will be moved by ambulance to LDS Hospital Bone Marrow Transplant Unit where they can care for her as we continue to make decisions about how quickly she will be ready for a transplant and if there will be any more RICE chemotherapy before then. The decision to use a donor has officially been made and her siblings will be tested first.
   There are many of you who have offered to donate. I do not know all of the cost or criteria for testing. I will post that information as soon as possible. I will also post visiting information. I don't know how they run the transplant unit. Please continue to pray for Celeste - She needs it and is very sustained by her knowledge of so many loved ones praying for her.
  Celeste asked me to share this:
"I say this in my head all the time - Lord grant me courage
                                                           Lord grant me strength
                                                           Lord grant me hope
                                                           Lord grant me faith
                                                           Lord grant me peace
                                                           Lord grant me understanding"
Please Lord - Grant that we may continue to have Celeste stay with us!!!!!!!!!!!!

Human Metapneumovirus

My apologies for not updating for so long. This is where you should be able to quickly check on Celeste. She has been struggling so much it is difficult to write about. After the RICE chemotherapy she remained fever free for about one week. Her platelet counts remain low and she has transfusions for those every other day. Her white blood cell count has been parked at .1 for almost a week.

 On Sunday 2/26 she had a low grade fever that we tried to explain away with sleeping under heavier/warmer blanket. By Monday she was spiking fevers into 103 and 104 degrees. CT scan on Tuesday was taken to make sure there were no pockets of infection lurking somewhere. Good news from the scan is that the tumors are responding to chemo and are shrinking significantly. No signs of infection. Weds night a Bronchoscopy was performed to suck up fluids in her lung and test/culture them. Most of those cultures and tests have not come back. The preliminary finding is that she has the human metapneumovirus (hMPV). In a child we would call it RSV.  Simply put - she has a viral pneumonia. She is suseptible because she is immunosuppressed.

She is on 6 different IV antibiotics, 2 IV antifungals, and oral antiviral. Between transfusions,  antibiotics and maintenance fluid, something is always running into her. All of these things cannot really fight the hMPV. She needs to create white blood cells to do that. Last night they ran a loading dose of IVIG (immuno globulin). It will be given to her every other day for a total of 5 doses. It is hoped this can give her a 'leg up". She also has a daily neupogen shot to stimulate her bone marrow. Today she has rested better and not had as many coughing spells. Coughing causes her to gag and vomit.  Morphine was added today to calm her lungs. It has helped but she is also very groggy. At midnight last night her fever had reached 105 degrees. Because of her wretching she sometimes looses the fever medication and it can't be replaced for a certain amount of time.

Celeste has times when she gets emotionally tired as well as physically exhausted. She is still committed to continue fighting. Robert and Pres. Pike are giving her another blessing tonight. A friend who has also fought cancer visited yesterday and left this poem with her - it expresses what we all feel!
I believe in angels, 
the kind heaven sends.
I am surrounded
by angels, but I call them friends.

Chemo Round #1

After a bone marrow biopsy confirmed that cancer is now in her bones, Celeste started her first round of RICE chemotherapy on Thursday 2/16. RICE is a more aggressive chemo than the RCHOP that she had 6 rounds of last year. RICE is an acronym for 4 medications used over 4 days. On the first day Rituxan is used. For 3 subsequent days Ifex, Cisplatin, and Etoposide are used each day. She finished her last day of this round of  chemotherapy yesterday. She will stay in the hospital and be supported by transfusions and antibiotics until she hits her nadir (low point) and her blood levels start to climb back up. She hasn't had a fever for a few days. That is huge! She continues on 4 IV antibiotics, an antiviral and antifungal. She is still coughing but not as uncontrollably. Oxygen and an inhaler have been the most help.

Today she felt well enough to take a walk around the ninth floor. Her spirits are good. As we sat and looked out a big picture window at the beautiful snow covered mountains she wondered what people do who do not have so many people praying for them. She feels very supported by your prayers. Our whole family feel the strength and blessing of all your love and prayers.

The plan for the future is a second round of RICE chemo and then a 3rd round of chemotherapy in the bone marrow transplant unit at LDS Hospital in preparation for the transplant. We don't really have a time line for that because it will be driven by how fast she recovers between chemo sessions and can be ready for another.

News

Well, the past month has been interesting.  I saw an immunologist, but she still wants to take more tests before she can decide anything.  Also, I have some bad news........I've not been feeling well the past couple of weeks and we all thought I had the flu.  I saw a doctor at Utah Cancer Specialists on Tuesday, and he gave me some antibiotics for all of the fevers that I was having and a blood transfusion cause my hematocrit was low.  That night I woke up twice because my heart was racing and I was really dizzy.  It lasted for a few minutes each time.  Wednesday night, the same thing happened five times.  I had been checking my pulse when these episodes occurred and the highest was 118.  After the 5th time it happened (@ 3:00 am) I called the on-call doctor at UCS and explained the situation. Plus, I was still having fevers.  She told me to go to the ER.  That was Thursday morning.  They admitted me to the hospital (IMC again) and have been running a bunch of tests.  It seems that I have an infection that has been driving my blood counts really low, so they're giving me antibiotics for that.  The really bad news is........I am no longer in remission.  The lymphoma came back and the scan is worse than the one they did last July.  I will have to start chemo again, and maybe on a different regimen than before.  They will also most likely do a bone marrow transplant this time.  I took the news pretty hard at first, but I want you all to know that I'm still fighting and that this isn't going to take before I at least give it a good fight.  I'm really hoping that the bone marrow transplant will help.  Basically all I ask from all of you is what I always ask for: PRAYERS.  I'm gonna need a lot of strength to get through this.  Thank you.

Week 1 to New Hair!

 Alright ya'll, my hair can finally start to grow back!  Every two weeks I will post a picture or two showing my progress!  These pictures are from this last Sunday (8th) when my brother-in-law Mitchell shaved my head one more time.  It was really patchy and thin, so I decided to give it a fresh start :)  Last bald pictures!

Drum Roll Please.....

I'M CANCER FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D I got the results from my pet scan today and it's clean!  No cancer!  Now the trick is to not get cancer again.  I'll try my best! lol.  Thanks for the prayers everyone!

PET Scan

Well, not gonna lie, last week was rough.  Probably the hardest week I've had since August.  I had 4 platelet transfusions, 2 blood transfusions, several fevers, and I started going into anaphylactic shock on New Years Eve from the avacados in some guacamole I ate.  I'm ok, I just could feel my throat starting to close up so I took some liquid benedryl and felt better almost immediately.  I didn't have to go to the doctor or anything.  My doc told me a few years ago that I'm allergic to avacados, but I guess my allergy has just gotten worse.  I'll probably look into getting an epi pen.  Anyway, so last week was rough, but I'm feeling much better now :)

I also had my PET scan on Friday.  I'll get the results tomorrow (Wednesday) hopefully.  I'll definitely post those when I get them.  Everything went well.  Sitting still for 45 min. and then an additional 30 min. kinda stinks though lol.

 I was cold at the transfusion center so my nurse wrapped me up in warm blankets really good :)