A Slow Day

Today has been a fairly slow day. Ryan had 2 pumps with lots of antibiotics and other bags hanging the last couple of days. He is down to one pump, with only 2 bags hanging, one of those is fluids. His white count is down to 700 (yesterdays was 1200, not 12,000; I read the paper wrong). He will be getting a chest x-ray tomorrow to look at the mass and see how it is responding to the chemo. By looking at his blood counts alone, he is responding very well. It is the plan that another bone marrow biopsy will be done on day 14 (today is day 4) to see what, if anything, is left in the bone marrow. Ryan is feeling well and eating well so far and he doesn't seem to feel as wiped out after these days of chemo as he did when we went through this before.

We are thankful for the good results so far and continue to praise God for him being the one set of footprints in the sand.

Count Your Blessings

Here are mine:

1. Ryan and Aubrey

2. My parents, Sandy, Diana, and Shannon for selflessly watching Aubrey so much this week.

3. The staff at CTC for their support of us. We are incredibly grateful to whomever gave the money to cover our lack of insurance costs! We are thankful that Ryan can have a computer to use to keep in touch with his students. We are thankful that we had such a great time scratching off lottery tickets tonight - we only did half of them, but we won $25 so far!

4. Everybody who emailed me and offered to help, I will get back to you when I know what I need.

5. A doctor who is real enough to be able to say that God is truly the Great Physician and pray for us.

6. Ryan's body responding to the chemo so quickly, white count is down to 12,000 today and there are no blasts (that's something that signals cancer, but I don't know really what they are) in his blood today.

7. Dr. Marinella removed some of his antibiotics so Ryan doesn't have so much stuff hanging on his IV pump.

8. Clean dishes, clean laundry, a warm house, and comfortable bed.

God is good, all the time.
-A

God makes all things possible, not easy

Well, I guess I jumped the gun. Just when I thought I could report that things are going well, they fall apart! Ryan got sick on the way to work Monday morning. He continued on to school, but called the doctor when he got there. They happened to have an appointment in Greenville at 11:30 and so he worked 1/2 day and then headed to the doctor's office. The doctor checked him out, told him that most likely he had the flu, gave him a couple of prescriptions and told him, just to be on the safe side, that he better get his blood drawn and a chest x-ray done. Ryan went to Wayne Hospital and had those things done. When he left the hospital, the doctor's office called and told him to come back to the office.

They saw some shadowing on his chest x-ray and when they received his blood counts, his white cells were elevated. The doctor then wanted to do a bone marrow biopsy and a CT scan. They tried to schedule those outpatient for Monday afternoon, but the hospital was booked. His doctor told him that if he got admitted that he could get the tests done that night and have results on Tuesday. Ryan decided to be admitted.

They ran the tests and found that the leukemia was back and that there certainly was a spot on his chest where the x-ray showed shadowing. Dr. Marinella, his oncologist, called Dr. Devine, the transplant doctor we saw at OSU to determine the next steps. Ryan is at Miami Valley and has finished his 2nd day of chemo with the new regimen. He will likely be there a month and if his body responds well he will then be ready to head to OSU for the transplant. He will be at OSU in the hospital a month and then will have another month to month and a half of follow-up with the doctor there.

So, Aubrey and I are adjusting again to trying to do baths and everything else without Daddy around.

Ryan's white count was 96,000 before they started the chemo yesterday morning. This morning, the white cells has already fallen to 19,000. His body responded well to the treatment the first day. Hopefully, things will continue to go well.

We appreciate prayers.

Cruising Along

Things are going well around the Wulber household. Ryan was close to being over his cold and cough and then all the sudden began coughing again, so now he's fighting cold all over again. He goes for a bone marrow biopsy the 2nd Friday in February, so we should know by the end of February how things are progressing. According to his blood levels and the chest x-ray and MRI he's had recently, everything should look great.

Happy Thanksgiving

We are preparing today for tomorrow's big feast, Ryan's not allowed any naps because he'll want a long one tomorrow :) We are thankful for all our family and friends who have been praying for us and caring about us through Ryan's cancer. We are thankful that we have a beautiful daughter who is healthy. We are thankful that Ryan's cancer continues to be in remission. We are thankful that we have a God who answers prayers.

Happy Thanksgiving.

New News

We traveled to OSU James Cancer Center almost 2 weeks ago. We went on a rainy Wednesday, not a good day to drive or hear bad news, which we didn't expect to hear. When the doctor came in to greet us, he almost immediately began talking about a transplant, based on the .3% leukemia cells that had shown up in September when Dr. Marinella did the last biopsy. We were certainly taken aback, we had not expected to hear what we did from him. The doctor suggested that we do another bone marrow biopsy and have Ryan get typed for bone marrow in case a transplant was necessary. We also talked with a financial counselor so we would know what to expect if the transplant was needed.

We left Columbus feeling very dismal. I spent a while trying to think of good things that would come from a transplant. It would cut the chances of a relapse in half, it would also mean that Ryan wouldn't have to be on chemo pills for 2 years and we could have children sooner than that. We waited a long week before OSU called us back with results. The bone marrow biopsy they did there came back clean, no leukemia present. We are still waiting on a genetics test they did, but the doctor does not think anything will show up on it because of the clean biopsy. As long as the genetic test comes back looking like the doctor expects, then he will not be suggesting a transplant at this time, we would just follow the 2 year chemo regimen that he's currently on.

Meanwhile, we're enjoying the nice weather and our new porch!

A Little Scare

The doctor called the other day to tell Ryan that the results of his biopsy were back and they saw some leukemia cells at .3%. I was a bit nervous when Ryan told me this, but the doctor has called him again to tell him that this doesn't mean that he's no longer in remission. It could just be cells showing up that have always been there and they just happened to be able to be seen in this sample. He thinks it is residual, not a new, growing cell. We are in the process of scheduling an appointment with a transplant doctor at Ohio State. Ryan's doctor has talked with a transplant doctor at IU and he feels that the plan we're already on - 2 years of maintenance pills and bloodwork every so often is the plan to take. Ryan's doctor suggested we get 1 more opinion, just so everyone feels at ease. We will be going over to Columbus one day soon, but we don't expect to hear any different news. Please continue to keep us in your prayers.

-A