I'm Back 9-8-08 In the Hospital that is

I am back in the hospital, but this is actually a good thing. Part of my chemo treatment envisioned a few rounds of "consolidation" treatment for a week at a time in the hospital. Praise the Lord that I have had three bone marrow biopsies and all show that my bone marrow is clean and no leukemic cells can be seen. This is a very good thing.

For the three weeks that I have been out of the hospital, I have felt great. My blood counts have climbed up into the normal range, I have spent the last couple of weeks in the office, caught up little lost time by driving my fleet of cars, and even managed to rip my front bumper on a parking curb on my SL500 baby (Mercedes). At first I whined a lot ($2800) to replace and paint a bumper!? But then my daughter Amanda reminded me that it is only a car. True! However, the younger female generation just does not understand the male mindset of my generation as to what cars, in particular, our special cars mean in our lives.

The consolidation or "clean up" round of chemo this week is intended to go after any leukemic stem cells that "may be hiding in the weeds". My treatment this week will consist of six infusions of Cytarabine "AraC", of which two will be administered on Monday, Wednesday and Friday each. The expectation, barring no complications (please pray for that), that I will be released either late Friday or on Saturday. I would then recuperate at home as my blood counts go down over the following several weeks (the predicted nadir is 7 - 10 days). So I will neutropenic, which means I won't really have an immune system again and will most likely have outpatient blood and platelet transfusions. But I will be home! I don't plan to attend any social gatherings and will probably do my work from home for the following several weeks just to mitigate any risks related to infections. I do plan to build my counts up within 3-4 weeks and be totally fit as a fiddle ready to walk Jackie down the aisle on October 18 at her wedding.

I feel great and continue to stay busy with my work, workouts, reading and sundry other things regardless of whether I am in the hospital, at home, or at work. God is so good when we totally look to him.

I continue to thank many of you for staying in touch and for all of your thoughts and prayers. May the grace of God and the peace that he gives all who know him personally be an encouragement to your own lives and whatever trials that you may be experiencing. Our pastor a couple of weeks ago gave a sermon with regard to all of us at some time in our life experiencing a (several) crisis. The take home message is "to never waste a crisis". God has something planned for each of you if you allow him to work through you.