First I would like to start off by thanking everyone for their condolences and prayers the last two weeks. My father, Martin Sitowitz, passed away on Monday September 13th, 2010 unexpectedly, at the age of 75. As Bill always says “Life as we know it can change in a moment”. My father, Martin, touched a lot of lives and will be missed.
Now I need to bring you up to date on what has happened in Bill’s journey for the last four weeks. Bill’s WBC count for the past four weeks has been hovering between 1.0 and 1.4; therefore he never did get his next round of Cladribine and will not receive anymore. In total Bill did three rounds of Cladribine or 15 treatments. After missing one week of Campath, the doctor started Bill back up on Monday September 6th. As of today Bill has two more treatments and then he will be done with Campath. In total, as of this Friday, Bill will have received 47 injections of Campath.
Treatment is ending because we have a date for Bill’s bone morrow transplant, November 9th, 2010. His treatment is ending because the doctors want to give Bill’s system a rest so he can build up his counts prior to the transplant.
Yesterday and today Bill had his vital organ testing. It was an action packed scheduled and everything went as planned.
Monday Bill had the following tests and appointments:
*Pulmonary Function Testing – 1 vial of blood
*Meeting with the social worker
*EKG
*Chest X-ray
*Blood work – 19 vials of blood
*Tour of off site apartments
*Campath injection
*MUGA Scan for heart function – 1 vial of blood – A nuclear medicine test to evaluate the function of the heart ventricles.
*Tour of inpatient unit and patient rooms
*CAT scan of chest and sinus
Today, Tuesday Bill had the following appointments:
*Meeting with the primary nurse
*Bone Marrow Biopsy (4th)
*Appointment and examination with the PA
During the appointment with the PA we learned that all the tests performed on Monday showed good results, which means physically Bill is fit for the transplant. On October 13th Bill has the following appointment:
*Meeting with Psychologist
*Outpatient Pharmacy to discuss post transplant medications
*Meeting with Dr. Ayala, transplant physician
During the meeting with doctor Ayala, he will review all the results from the tests performed the last two days, the biopsy results and then both Bill and the doctor will sign a contract, Consent for high dose Busulfan and Fludarabine and Allogenic Hematopoietic Cell Transplant.
After October 13th we have the following schedule:
*Thursday, October 28th Bills brother Ed will come to Tampa to have his testing before Moffitt harvests his stem cells.
*Tuesday, November 2nd Bill will get a triple lumen catheter surgically implanted.
*Tuesday, November 2nd, Bill, Margy and I will attend caregiver orientation.
*Wednesday, November 3rd Ed starts four days of Neupogen shots to stimulate stem cell growth and to move them from the bone to the blood.
*Wednesday, November 3rd Bill is admitted to the hospital and starts four days of high dose Busulfan and Fludarabine.
*Monday, November 8th Moffitt will harvest Ed’s stem cells. If they don’t get enough on the 8th they will harvest the remainder on the 9th.
*Tuesday, November 9th is Bill’s transplant date.
Following the transplant the uphill climb begins. Today we learned that the side effects from the high dose chemo will be felt the following week and then the journey to engraftment begins. Bill will be in the hospital for 4 to 6 weeks. Once he is discharged we will move into the hospital owned apartment in the Lodge at Lakecrest, which we toured yesterday. The apartments are beautiful and have everything we will need for the remainder of our stay in Tampa.
Below is a picture of Bill with a few members of the infusion center team in Titusville
Until next time.....
