Nov 29

Tanner finished his chemo meds early am on Sunday. He feels ok just no energy and rundown from the last 2 weeks. His spirits are pretty good. The phone rang in the room Sunday morning, It was Bishop Bingham asking if Tanner was ready for a meeting. The weather was not good to be driving in but if they wanted to drive down who am I to tell them no. The next thing I know is he was attending priesthood meeting via "skype". It was pretty cool to sit in on the lesson and to be included in questions and answers. (thanks BJ).
It snowed here in salt lake about 10 inches and the roads were not good as you might expect. Salt lake apparently has on rules about on street parking, so I don't know how the roads are expected to be plowed.
Tanner has been here for 2 weeks today so he is at about the halfway mark. I brought down his x-box games so now he is not sleeping the days away he can play them all day long. Although he has not gotten them out today. There are some pretty interesting shows on the discovery and history channels. It has been good to be here for a few days.

Family Time

Shayna, Tanner, Jaxon and Kaley

Jaxon takes a close look at uncle Tanner

Tanner feeling a little better

Our wonderful Thanksgiving dinner!!

This is a Emily she is a therapy dog so cute

Noverber 27th

Good morning,
Tanner had a good day yesterday. He is down to one chemo med twice a day now with tomorrow being the last day!! As you can quess his counts are way low so they gave him platlets, and 2 units of blood again yesterday, I think that made him feel better. Kaley stayed with me for a couple nights, we went to temple square and enjoyed the beautiful lights, we even hit one store the day after thanksgiving, her first black friday experience,It was good to have her here with me.
Thank you for the love and support, we are so grateful.
Love Kristi

Our Day of Thanksgiving

Earlier last week when this was all a shock and new and I was having random and fearful thoughts like the financial part of this and the seperation issues and how would Kaley handle all this to things like do I decorate for christmas? , do I put lights up on the house? What about Thanksgiving. It is deep in tradition. Think about it for a moment. It is all about turkey, Yams and more importanly the pumpkin and pecan pie. It is about shopping for groceries making food assignments and then after you wake up from that turkey induced nap you plan out your Black Friday shopping statagies and map your early am route. That has been the tradition at our house for years. So when I was driving to Salt lake last week I had a problem that needed a soulution. Would Tanner be sick from treaments. Do we accept invitations for dinner in SLC, or do we spend a quiet day together with Tanner With cafiteria food? The answer is so obvious. The title of this post is our day of Thanksgiving. That is exactly how we spent it. Guyann brought over the majority of the fixins, I had a pie making Clinic with Shayna and my FAVORITE grandson, Jaxon, I confiscated one of the pecan pies, and I made Tanner a Specially handled meal at the restaurant where I could control the cooling time of the food to keep it safe for him as he is a high risk for bacteria. We used the foot of his bed for our dining table and pulled our chairs up and gave our thanks to be together as a family and enjoyed our dinner.

When I was last there on Monday he was just beginning to feel better. When I entered the room today, what a difference. He was sitting up and waiting for his dinner. he ate most of it and then proceeded to talk about the Patriots game on TV that his nurse and he were sparring about.

He only has 2 days of this treatment left to go. Sunday will be his first day of no Chemo. He will then wait for about 2-3 weeks for his body to recover and blood count to come up then come home for about a week. Today his white count is almost "0". His spirits are as good as can be expected. His computer would not log on the hospital network last week so I took it in and had a reinstall done on it. Today it works as it should. He was glad to finally have his own.

I took him a stack of cards that have been accumulating at the house all week. some of the kids in our Primary had written him letters and made pictures for him. He loved it, the wall by his bed is mostly filled with get well wishes.

Once again the cards, e-mails, calls and acts of kindness shown to my family are truly appreciated and we are forever grateful!!!!!!

Post from Mom...

Good evening,
Boy has the snow moved into Salt Lake, I heard logan got hit hard and fast as well. Tanner has a window that faces north so we were about to watch the storm move in. It looks like I will be spending the night in the ever so comfortable fold out chairs in his room, roads are to bad to leave.
Any way Tanner had a really good morning, he showered and shaved, and sat in the chair for awhile and then wanted a Arby's sandwich for lunch. it was good to see him feeling better. That was this morning this afternoon he started feeling crappy and with another 104.fever, ice bags and tylenol help but it's hard to reduce the fever. His spirits are ok tonight, we are just watching the storm before the next round of chemo begins it's day 6.
Thanks for your love and prayers, this is going to be a very long journey, and we are so grateful for the love we feel.

November 23rd

update

Day 5 of chemo,
Tanner had a fever of 104 for most of the night, tylenol helped a little but not much. Robert was able to spend Sunday and Monday with him while I went home for the first time, it sure was good to be home. So grateful for all the love and support, it's nice to know so many people love Tanner and our family, we are so blessed!
Tanner has had a little better day today, he has a rash that covered his whole body except his face which is from one of the chemo drugs, but he was able to eat a baked potato for diner, the first thing other than crackers and granola bars in a week. So good to see him feel a little better.

We will be enjoying Thanksgiving as a family at the hospital, it will be so nice to be all together again. Thank you so much for all the many, many offers, we will be well taken care of.
We will know in about a week if Shayna or Kaley is a match for the bone marrow transplant, many of you have ask about being tested, THANK YOU, we will find out the best way to do this and post it when we know.
Please Pray for Tanner!!!
Love to all, good night
Kristi

Day 4

Dad the author of this post. I had the opportunity to spend a couple of days with Tanner at his bedside. First and foremost This is the first time spending the whole day while receiving treatments. I want you all to know the staff here on the 4Th floor is truly amazing and totally dedicated and committed to patient care. What ever you need they are here for you. If you have a question they will get the answer although when our quiet rocking chair was swapped out to the room next door no one could say why we got the squeaky on. Lets just say the squeaky wheel (rocker) gets the grease. I have been told what awesome nurses are here but now I can say I have seen them in action.

Today has been pretty much the same, Thankfully minimal nausea. The meds cause him to sleep most of the time and interesting he tells me he can hear church music from the second floor. It is Sunday you know. He is extremely weak and tired, but has not eaten much or been out of bed all week. Manny his nurse told me this is due to low blood pressure caused from extremely low blood count from chemo. He will receive 2 units this afternoon and that should make a big difference with how he feels. even with only 1/2 unit in him his pressures are beginning to come up. He also has had a fever most of the day. this too is a side effect of chemo. 4 days down 6 to go with treatment.

I want to let you know that while he may be confused as to what day it is he does remember the things that go on during the day. It is interesting to watch how he and his nurses interact. They are asking him the questions not dad. He does let them know if he is hurting and if he needs anything.

I am deeply appreciative of the acts of kindness shown to our family. I cannot express my feelings when I am told of the visits, calls, etc. during this difficult time for my family. Just know that we will all know why we have these trials and that we will all be made stronger from them.

Day 3 of Chemo

Tanner has started day 3 of his chemo treatments. Mom says that he has been fighting a fever all day today. He still is nauseated at times. They are trying to control this with medications. He is still resting well.

Thank you to any and all visitors who have stopped by, you are very much appreciated. Also thanks to everyone for their thoughts and prayers.

Also Donna and Steve Reeder came by with a get well book from the students at Logan High. Thank you to all of you who took the time to sign it, it means a lot, not only to him but to our whole family.

Update...

Good Morning!

I just got off the phone with my mom.  She said Tanner started his first round of chemo yesterday.  He has had some nausea and a dry mouth.

This morning he developed a fever which they are controlling due to his blood counts being low.  He is resting well.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers! 

Pictures...

Jaxon and Uncle Tanner, just relaxing.

Triplet matching wrist bracelets, and Jaxon...  When Kaley and I had our blood drawn they gave us these bracelets to wear.  So of course we had to get a picture.  We also got Sparkle band aids, Tanner got a circus one, ours were much cooler :). 

Tanner getting his blood drawn.

Another Battle...

Tanner has been given another battle to fight. He has been diagnosed with AML. Acute Myloid Leukemia. This all started on Sunday November 14, 2010. Tanner decided to go to Instacare. He hadn't felt well for about 10 days - 2 weeks. They ran some blood tests, a Mono test and a Chest X-ray. The results came back, the Chest X-ray and the Mono test both came back negative. But the blood work was not good. His blood counts were very low and the Instacare Dr's were afraid that his Cancer was back. Once they returned home Mom started making phone calls. She called Tanner's Cancer Dr's office. They told them to make plans to have an appointment with Dr Flushell and have a Bone Marrow Biopsy the following Day, Monday November 15, 2010. She and my Dad also called Vint and Guyann and Shawn and I to come over and give Tanner a blessing before heading down to Salt Lake. They also called their new bishopric and they came over as well. Tanner, Dad, Mom and Kaley all received blessings. Tanner was able to give Dad his blessing, this was a very touching moment to see Tanner use his Priesthood and give such a beautiful blessing. Shortly after everyone left and they had finished packing, Mom and Tanner left for Salt Lake, and of course like every other time it was yucky weather. They made it down safely and would have to wait until the next morning to meet with the Doctors and get some answers. The hardest part of that day was the unknown. He met with his Dr at 10:00am and had the Bone Marrow Biopsy at Noon. Later that afternoon they got the Preliminary results that pointed toward Leukemia. They would have a final diagnosis the next day. On Tuesday November 16, 2010, Dad, Kaley, Jaxon and I all went down to Salt Lake City to be with Mom and Tanner. This was the day the Dr's were going to sit down with us and make a game plan and answer any and all questions that we had. We met with them around 3pm that day, they did confirm that he has AML. This likely was caused by his first round of chemotherapy used to treat his Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. They also called this a secondary cancer. Every year they get around 175 new cancer diagnoses and of those only 1 - 2 are secondary cancers. The Plan: He will have to undergo more Chemo. Anywhere between 3-5 treatments, depending on how well he responds. With those treatments he will have to stay in the hospital for about 4 weeks at a time. He then can come home for 1 week and then he goes back again for another round and so on. After he finishes the Chemo they would then do a Bone Marrow transplant. The Dr told us that a sibling would be the best if it was a match. There is a 1 in 4 chance that it could be a match. Kaley and I went down a few hours later and had our blood drawn to see if we are a match for Tanner. We should know the results of this in about 2 weeks. If there is not a match then we will turn to the Blood bank and try to find a match there. They don't test Parents because they would only be a 50% match. Yesterday, Wednesday November 17, 2010 at 4pm Tanner had surgery to Place his port...(The first one we affectionately called Wilbur, we will have to find another creative name for this one) and also to do a Lumbar Puncture to test for Cancer in the spine, which I just got word that there is NO cancer in his spine! He is due to start his Chemotherapy today. This will be a very long road, but Tanner is Strong and he can do it! We love you Tanner!!!