"E TICKET RIDE"

I think Sharon's love of high adventure is catching up with us. She always loves to live on the edge and so it is with our current adventure. After 2 weeks of good news, we figured you would be getting bored and so we needed to inject a little drama into your lives. As reported earlier when the white count fell to 5 the doctor took her off all of her chemotherapy drugs in hopes it would stay down and we wouldn't need platelets and blood quite so often. Great thought, but so far not going as well as we would have hoped. In the past week the white count has gone up to 16. We're still hoping it will slow down and stabilize in the 20's, which would make the Dr. happy. As for the pneumonia it is about the same, but she is having trouble sleeping at night because of coughing. We haven't figured that one out yet, but hope to get a pulmonologist referral when we see the doctor tomorrow. Quite honestly, I am looking for a little boredom, I am not sure my aging heart can take the continuing "E" ride. In fact when I had a choice I always stayed off those guys anyway. We do however "CONTINUE TO MOVE FORWARD WITH FAITH."

WE'RE ON A ROLL!!

It's time for our weekly update. We have had a good week. Sharon's white count continues to come down. On Thursday it was at 6.4 and today at 5.1. The Doctor is encouraged by this and has taken her off of the oral chemotherapy. This is good because it should help her mouth and throat to clear up which is currently her biggest downer. During the week we have been able to back off on the amount of oxygen that she needs and we have now cut it from 6 liters to 3 1/2 liters. The doctor said that her lungs were much clearer and so it would appear that the pneumonia is subsiding. She is sleeping well at night which is really good. We are now starting to work on building her strength back up. Maybe all this good news is because she is so absorbed in the Olympics that she forgets about her ailments, but whatever the reason we are really encouraged and looking forward to more good news in future reports.
We appreciate all of your cards and comments and especially your prayers and "WE CONTINUE TO MOVE FORWARD WITH FAITH."

DOWN GO THE MEAN OLD CELLS!!!

This past week was a relly busy one for us. On Monday our white count was at 44.3 and so the Doctor felt that we should begin our second round of Dacogen as well as continuing on the oral Chemotherapy drug Hydrea. Dacogen means a trip to the Doctors office to receive about 1 1/2 hours of treatment every day for the week. That usually works out to about 2 1/2 to 3 hours away from home. In addition to that we required platelets on Tuesday and Thursday, add 2 to 3 hours each day and then on Friday 2 units of blood, another 6 hours. Needless to say by Friday she was really wiped out and very weak. The pneumonia continues but we seem to be holding our own with that. Occasionally she will have a bad night due to coughing, but we seem to be moving forward a bit. She has had fewer fevers and her oxygen saturation has improved. The really exciting news is that her white blood count is in a free fall. On Thursday it was down to 27.1 and today down to 10.1, and so we are really encouraged by that. We are hopeful that this will be and easier week and that she will be able to rest well and begin to build back some strength. She will then hopefully be able to fight off the pneumonia. All in all we are very encouraged by the results and know that it is because of all of your faith and prayers. As for us, "WE CONTINUE TO MOVE FORWARD WITH FAITH."

Mighty Max

Hi everyone. I know, I know, you all want the latest update on my mom...sorry this isn't it. I just wanted to let everyone know that Max has joined the wide world of blogging. If you want to check him out he is at http://www.mightymaxandthemcclellans.blogspot.com/. Yeah, it's a mouthful, but everything else I tried was taken. Hope you enjoy!

A BIT OF GOOD NEWS!!!

We went to the Doctors on Monday and unfortunately Sharon's White Count was continuing to rise which presents a real concern for everyone. We spent a lot of time discussing options with Dr. Dreisbach and determined to take a conservative course. He placed her on a pill form of chemotherapy called Hydrea. She is taking an average dose with the intent that it will slow down the rising white count or even reduce it so that we can do another round of dacogen to see if it will knock down the leukemia. We went back to the Dr. again yesterday and it seems to be working. Her white count was at the same level as on Monday with only 2 days on the new drug. We are encouraged as is the Dr. Her Pneumonia seems to being doing a bit better as well. We have been able to back off to 5 liters of oxygen at times and she is sleeping much better at night. It doesn't hurt that she is getting frequent visits from kids and grand kids the real healers for her.

We thought we should share even a little of morsel of good news as it happens, since we haven't offered much of late. We continue to be optimistic and to "MOVE FORWARD WITH FAITH."