Dad has officially transferred from the treatment/chemo phase to the consolidation phase of his cancer journey! After ten cycles of chemo, 16 eye injections, numerous scans, and what seemed like a second residency at the Mayo hospital, Dad got to ring the bell with the doctors and nurses on the hematology oncology unit, marking a successful end to his chemo treatment. See it here!

Dad was able to return home for five days to pack and make preparations for this next phase at Mayo, where he will be through late May or early June, while he undergoes a stem cell transplant. Last week was filled with lots of tests, scans, and appointments, and ended with us meeting Dad's transplant doctor who, after reviewing Dad's test results and scans, determined his body healthy enough to tolerate and undergo this process, and officially cleared him for transplant! We were all very relieved to hear this news, and are so thankful Dad can be a candidate for the transplant which should offer a cure for him. 

Things have been moving quickly, and Dad's days have been filled with lots of appointments, tests, scans, etc as he is officially on the transplant timeline. Immediately following his appointment with the transplant doctor Friday, he began getting injections which increase the bone marrow's production of stem cells. This forces the stem cells to "spill out" into the bloodstream, where they can be easily collected. He is currently in this "Collections" stage, where he will be through Friday. After they have collected the 4 million stem cells they need, they will freeze them and Dad will be given an extremely high dose of chemo for three days. This will kill any cancer cells left in his body. It will make him feel very sick and lower his blood counts, which also causes the body to feel tired, nauseous, and miserable. His official "transplant day" is scheduled for 4/30, when his frozen stem cells will re-enter his body, travel to the bone marrow, and start re-growing his bone marrow. Since the high dose chemo and the low blood counts will destroy his immune system, we have to be extra careful to limit his exposure to any kind of germs. The whole transplant is done out-patient, but we have been told to expect he will need to be hospitalized at some point, due to the side effects of the chemo and low blood counts. He will be going to the transplant unit at Mayo every day, and will be closely monitored by the doctors and nurses there throughout the "recovery" weeks following the transplant day. 

Since the transplant is such an aggressive and intense process with serious side effects, he needs a caregiver to stay with him throughout the process. Stacy, Jon, and I are taking turns staying with Dad throughout the transplant and we will do our best to post updates throughout. 

We want to thank you all for your continued support, messages, calls, and prayers. They have gotten Dad and our family through the difficult first phase of this journey and we could not be more thankful for that. As Dad begins this transplant process, we would like to request and would so appreciate your prayers. Our family strongly believes in the power of prayer, and knowing others are keeping Dad in their prayers would mean so very much to us.  Thank you so much again for your ongoing support throughout this journey. It truly means more than words can say.

God bless, and we will post another update soon.