Welcome to my CaringBridge website. I am using this site to keep family and friends updated in one place. I appreciate your support and your words of hope and encouragement more than you know. Thank you for visiting. Please begin by reading the introduction to my website, "Lee Ann's Story".
Visit often to read the latest journal entries, visit the photo gallery, and please, write me a note in my guest book.
This continues to be a difficult journey, physically, emotionally, spiritually, and financially. I feel like I have been standing in the middle of a tornado and I cannot get out. For the past 10 years doctors in hospitals large and small have been down-playing or mis-diagnosing each of my symptoms that turned out to actually be Early-, Mid-, and Late- signs of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma Mantle Cell--Stage IV.
Since the official diagnosis of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma mantle Cell--Stage IV on October 25, 2017, I have just now finished six rounds of chemo at Buffett Cancer Center, Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, NE. Now, I am moving forward on a step-by-step schedule toward Stem Cell Transplant.
Because this is a cancer of the blood, my blood cells need to be destroyed by chemo and then replenished using my own stem cells which will first be harvested, and then replaced. in a delicate procedure, in order to re-grow healthy blood cells.
This is a lengthy and a critical period of my treatment. I need your prayers through the entire process.
The Stem Cell Transplant process will begin Friday, May 11, 2018 with tests on my heart, kidneys and lungs. Then, if my organs are strong enough, the next step will be placement of a central line. Following the central line placement I will get a series of injections of a medication that will stimulate the production of my Stem Cells. By May 21 the week-long process of Aphaeresis begins--this is a critical time when my Stem Cells will be removed from my body through my blood and frozen for re-implantation after BEAM Chemotherapy.
BEAM chemotherapy is a high-dose chemotherapy treatment and is given before a stem cell transplant. This is current front-line treatment for my cancer. This treatment with high-dose chemotherapy will destroy cancer cells in my bone marrow. After I am given high-dose BEAM chemotherapy, my own Stem Cells will be re-introduced (transplanted) into my body as an IV drip into a vein. The stem cells will go into my bone marrow and begin to make new blood cells.
This treatment will be given to me in the hospital. If all goes well, I will have BEAM Chemo one week before I have the stem cells. I will be in the hospital for a few weeks after the stem cell transplant while my blood cells are growing back to their normal levels.
Please pray for a successful transplant that will add many quality years to my life.
Here is a prayer we can say together--it comes from Isaiah 33:2 & Isaiah 42:16
OUR PRAYER: "O Lord, be gracious to us; we wait for Thee. Be our arm every morning, our salvation in the time of trouble."
GOD'S RESPONSE: "I will lead you in a way you do not know, in paths you have not known I will guide you. I will turn the darkness before you into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I will do, and I will not forsake you."
As some of you know- Mom was back home! However, yesterday she was admitted into the hospital in Ames. She is at Mary Greeley currently. They are concerned with her liver enzymes and her slightly elevated fever. I will try my best to keep everyone updated as much as I can.
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