Lymphoma!

[chadomac]

glad to hear you're still doing okay, squirrelly.

[brucrustu]

sgtcluels wrote: I implore everyone to join the National Bone Marrow donor program to

help people out with Lymphoma/Leukemia.

A few months ago my Dad, now 61yrs, relapsed. This time with tumors aggressively attacking his pelvis and upper legs. Chemo and radiation knocked the tumors down. The relapse ended his time in the study he had been enrolled in, and his doctor suggested bone marrow transplant. His sister did not match and us kid can't match because of being half our mom. A perfect match was located on a registry in Europe. The cells were harvested yesterday, flown to Madison and transplanted into my Dad around noon today.

 

The Docs and Nurses call today his new birthday. They even celebrated with cake and ice cream before the transplant. The actual transplant is basically just an IV bag with the cells in it. He reported to me over the phone that it was a very strange sensation, and his entire body was churning like an upset stomach only it was through out his entire body. The next month will tell if the transplant takes and then around 6 months they will start to wean him off the anti-rejection drugs.

 

If you get the chance to get on a bone marrow registry, please do so. Somebody in Europe did it and it may be literally saving my Dad's life right now.

 

I hope no news is good news on the squirelmaster front.

 

Stewart

[SquirrelMaster]

I was trolling through the forums as I usually do, and found this thread bumped for an awesome reason! I would love to donate bone marrow to a cause that I feel so passionate about, however, I think I'll wait 5 years from the date of my remission to make sure my marrow is "healthy."

 

But yeah, everything is going good. My entire mindset on life is completely changed. I LOVE life now, I try to do as much as possible with the time that is given to me! I was always the type of person to be happy to just go to work, come home, watch tv, and thats that. This past January I took a vacation to FL (my first ever vacation out of state), and I'll be going back again in April. I also took the plunge and bought a car I've been wanting for literally YEARS.

 

I also look at people quite a bit differently. I never judge, and I keep an open mind. Fighting my own battles has made me realize that everyone has their own problems, they don't me or anyone else judging them in any way, or looking at them differently.

 

Going a little off topic, sorry, but I have been in remission since 3/11/09, and plan on staying that way until I kick the bucket!

 

If you, or ANYONE you know gets sick, PLEASE tell them to check out the cancer center in the UW madison hospital. It truly is an amazing place.

[pitchleague]

I decided to resurrect this thread as I had a cancer-related question.

 

My dad is going in for prostate surgery on Monday down in Phoenix. I believe it's the robotic surgery so the hospital stay should be "minimal." But my question is about transporting him home. It's a 3-hour car ride from the hospital to our town and I'll be driving my wife, my mom and my dad down to PHX and then back after the surgery. Is this safe for my dad to be sitting for 3 hours a day or two after he had surgery on his prostate? It seems to me that he'd be rather uncomfortable, especially with a catheter to travel with as well.

 

Anybody have any experience with traveling with someone who just had prostate surgery? I know that I'm grasping for answers here but I couldn't find much about this online. Not sure if I should just try to call the hospital (who would I even ask to talk to?)

[whizkid]

I would ask the surgeon. Call his office.

[GAME05]

my father had prostate surgery a month ago and he didn't tell me he was having any real problems sitting. that was about all he was really doing post-surgery. i'd think a ride would be fine, but i'll have to ask my father again. he didn't feel that well for about three days after the surgery but gained strength back pretty quickly. he's actually going to Phoenix in a week, too. granted, everyone has different reactions to the same surgery. hope it goes well, PITCH.

[mothershipconnection]

Definitely call the surgeon's office. If there's an issue where some adaptive equipment would be needed, they could likely order it and have his insurance pay for it.