I received the results from the bone marrow biopsy today (Friday) and although they were able to knock out 83% of the leukemia cells in my marrow, there is still another 17% that will require a second round of a normal course of the Daunarubicin and Ara-C (won't be high dose this time) over the next 7 days. This is not uncommon and I am so happy that the first round was able to zap as much as it did! When I was first admitted, 60% of all the bone marrow in my body was Leukemia cells, now only 10% of my bone marrow is Leukemia cells...now that's what I call progress. I am healthy, feeling strong, and feeling armed with all the love, thoughts, best wishes, and prayers that come my way everyday from all of you.
I got a lot of visitors yesterday and had a Friday Night Date Night and sleep over with Theresa ;-).
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| Luis, Me and Khalid |
My good friends and colleagues from work, Khalid and Luis, came by and we had a great visit. They brought a huge card that had so many nice messages from everyone from work. Thank you all so much for your thoughts, prayers and well wishes. Also, thank you for the Kindle and gift cards for my family. That was so nice of you all! The Kindle will come in very handy for my reading and my family sends their thanks for the nice gift cards. We are very touched by the caring and generosity you have all showed to me and my family. Thank you, thank you, so much!
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| Mia, Theresa, Me and Tiff |
Theresa came by and then my sister in-law Mia and then our friend Tiffiny...I was surrounded by beautiful women! We had lunch, talked, and laughed. Thank you for the dose of laughter and good spirits! Thanks to Tiffiny for bringing Theresa some lunch. It's nice to know that people are watching out for her too!
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| Parag, Yogi and Me |
My daughters Olivia and Rachel came by for a visit in the early evening which was awesome. It was the highlight of the day! They were both understandably upset that I would not be coming home soon, but I assured them that Papi will be just fine and needs a little more medicine to get the rest of this stuff. Given the speed these two weeks have passed, another 3-4 will be cake. They have such strong spirits and will be even stronger when we will all get through this together as a family. I love you my little Princesses, with all my heart, ditto, eternity and beyond...gotcha!
Theresa surprised me and said she'd be staying the night, so I quickly went into action. I picked a movie for us to watch and ordered a cot for her to sleep in, got my cocktail bar ready (consists of tea's, ensure and ginger ale...hey, it works). We snuggled in my bed for the movie (Bourne Ultimatum...thank you Joe and Sharon), talked and got ready for bed. Just like being back at home...ahhhh, the best night ever!
One more thing. A very good friend (my best Tequila shot partner) who beat cancer sent me a very appropriate message that I'd like to share:
Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is a quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow".
Love you all!
John
Hi Johnny Baby,
ReplyDeleteGreat news that 83% of the leukemia cells were knocked out. Keep fighting. This next round will get the last 17%! You are such an inspiration.
Jovita is working with us to start a Bone Marrow Drive in your name. We are making great progress. In fact Jovita, Rich and I went yesterday to register and got tested. It was painless, only took 20 minutes and I felt really good after I did that. Joe was over the age limit so they wouldn’t let him and he was bummed. More to come soon on the drive. Hugs and kisses from us.
Love you,
Sharon and Joe