4:30 Saturday April 30,2011

Wow, yesterday went by too quickly to get to the blog.  I apologize - I know lots of you log on each day and look forward to updates. 

We went to UCLA in the morning and had a consultation with Dr. De Vos.  He was the in-service doctor who monitored Ed's ARA-C chemo treatment at UCLA in March and he's also involved with the stem cell transplant program at UCLA.  He had good news after reviewing Ed's records from Dr. Menco - the chemo regiman is showing good results with "melting" the lymphoma.   He says it's really important to stay on the aggressive schedule to hold onto the progress made so far, so he will make sure a dose of ARA-C is available for Ed this week at UCLA since it's still on national backorder and very few facilities have any at the moment.  As soon as a bed is available they will call us to come in, most likely Monday or Tuesday of this next week.  It will be a 3-4 day stay again and Dr. De Vos happens to be on his in-service rotation and will be the supervising doctor for Ed during the chemo.

He also briefly explained the stem cell transplant procedure and will present Ed's case to the stem cell committee at their meeting this next Monday to start the ball rolling for the process.  We will be assigned a case manager/coordinator who will go through the extensive paperwork, insurance navigation, logistics, and give us a tour of the facility and explain the procedure in detail.  It will likely be scheduled for shortly after Ed completes his 6th chemo sometime in mid-June and involves about a 30-day hospital stay.  Dr. De Vos shared encouraging research statistics and was pleased with the progress of Ed's digestive tract getting back to functioning.  Ed has actually put on a few pounds and it's making a huge difference in how he feels - more strength and not so tired all the time.  Dr. De Vos told him to eat all the foods everyone else has to stay away from - pizza & ice cream, which are two of Ed's favorites anyway.  Everyone will be jealous of his diet for sure.  He's going to stay on the TPN for now as well until he's got a really stable eating pattern down and has some good weight gain, but Ed is enjoying eating again for sure.

Ed' been up and around this weekend and has his eye on going to a car show in Camarillo tomorrow - then he'll settle down for the chemo and some forced quiet time for about 10 days or so.  Meanwhile, it's gorgeous weather and he's happy to be out in it!

We're going to a birthday party tonight where he'll be able to see lots of friends so that will be a good time. 

Back tomorrow.......