Rough days

Sunday was a very hard day on Tanner, this new chemo is bad news (as if any of them are great) but this is bad. In all the time we have been dealing with cancer this was the worst, but they said that it would get easier each day and it has to a small degree. Today just pain and nausea which really is better than than all the rest. Tomorrow is the last day of chemo, then on to a long recovery with hopefully few side affects We are still waiting for the results of the biopsy, maybe tomorrow. That's about it for now, we are so grateful for your continued love and support! Love to all Kristi

Here we go

After we empty all our tears, we are here starting again. Tanner received his first dose of this new chemo drug (chlofarabine) this morning, it has been a very long and hard day on him. The side effects are horrible, body aches, vomiting, chills, nausea, and the list goes on and on. I have tried to keep things very quite for him, so he can rest well. The nurses have been great, so attentive and concerned. The plan so far is this, 5 days of this chemo, count recovery (3 weeks here) and then maybe home for a week if all goes well. then another bone marrow test to see if the cancer is in remission, if so on to transplant if not another round of chemo. Many of you know that Tanner was been having some pain around his clavicle bone area, after an x-ray, ct scan, and a MRI, they found he has a cluster or nest of cancer cells, this is what has been causing his pain. The treatment is the same unless they don't go away, then there is a possibility of radiation therapy. We'll see how things go. Many have asked why the cancer came back, the reason the Doctors gave us is that we had to wait to long for the transplant, Tanner's cancer is so aggressive that 3 weeks is to long for him to go without chemo or transplant. I'm not sure if they will harvest the donor on the 5Th as planned or if they will have him reschedule are well. We are so very grateful for him and what he is willing to do for Tanner. Thank you for your love and support, love Kristi

Why can't things go as planned

We received bad news today, Tanner is no longer in remission. he has 13% cancer cells. He will have to endure one to two more rounds of chemo, hopefully putting him back in remission so we can go forward with transplant. Sometimes life seems so unfair. Luckily Tanner is far stronger than myself, he will face whatever he needs to with courage and strengh, he is so amazing. Please pray for our family, we could us a bit of a lift.
Love Kristi

Staff at Primary's

Two of our PA's, awesome ladies

Mitch, great guy

Sara, so cute

Annie, so sweet

Dave, your awesome

Erika, we love you

Rachel, one of our favorite techs

Good time at home

We are so happy to be home! We have had an extended stay this time, Tanner is loving spending time with his friends and family. He went and visited Lee's market to say hi and thank you to all his co-workers, they are always happy to see him, and we are so grateful for their support.
His anc on Monday was 1100 with platelets at 134, so the Dr's stopped his blood draws because he is doing so well.
As the schedule goes, we will go down on the 22nd and 23rd of this month for a long two days of tests, and alot of teaching on transplants for Robert and I about 5 hours worth. But Tanner is getting stronger by the day, which we help him through the transplant process. Then we will go back on March 31st for a few last minute details, then admit at 5:00 am April 1st, no joke here.
This will be day one of 4 for Chemo, the kill everything kind, as if the others have not been bad enough, then on April 5Th our donor will be so gracious to share his time and marrow, in order to save Tanner's life (literally) then on April 6Th the big day Tanner will receive his new bone marrow. This will start day one of the 100 days away from home. We are so grateful, and so scared all at the same time.
Words cannot express the gratitude we feel for all the love, prayers and help we have received. We have and amazing family, friends, and wards families you could ask for. Not a day goes by that we are not checked on by someone, these are our angels. And I know we have a few from heaven watching over us too.
Just a quick thank you to our Dr's and nurses, at Primary Children's we are so grateful for you love and support, we are more to them than just a patient, and they are more to us than just staff, we truly love you.
And to our AML friends, we follow your blogs and pray for you, we miss seeing you, and sharing in your successes, and being there for you in the "hard days", secretly wishing we could all just love each other for a distance, because that would mean that AML is not part of our lives, but so grateful to meet such wonderful people. We send you love.
That about covers it for now,
Love to all
Kristi

Transplant Date

We found out yesterday the information we have been waiting for for the last 4 months! The date for transplant will be April 6. Readmission will be March 31. There is a whole myriad of testing and stuff to get done between now and then so we expect around 3 days in SLC to get this done. That is the extent of what we know for now.

Robert

march 8th

well here we are! its very good to be home again and take a break. friday and saturday were a little tough because my stomach is taking its sweet time to get healed up and i just get weaker after each round so i didnt do much besides sit on the couch... still better than a hospital bed though! yesterday and today have been much better! im starting to get some of that energy back, and pretty much be on my normal diet again.

its crazy to imagine that we are basically at the halfway point for treatments! as most of you know our next admission will be for the transplant. its definitely nerve racking but after almost 4 months of talking about it im just ready to do it and get it done.

theres not a whole lot of new info, we are still waiting for a call to tell us when we actually go in again for the next round. we dont know what my counts are looking like right now but they will draw blood on thursday to see what they are.

i think thats about it for now! thank you for the continued prayers and support!

-tanner

march 05

Tanner was released from the hospital on Friday and was soooo!!! happy to be home. He is on an antibiotic every 8 hours so Kristi only has to get up on time at night. He is feeling a little better each day but his stomach is still a litter tender. We don't have a schedule yet of future tests etc. but will know as his blood counts improve in the next few days. He will have another marrow aspirate, then assuming the results are favorable then he will move to the next phase which is what he has been preparing for for the last 4 months. I anticipate he will be home for less than 2 weeks. But the time here well be well spent!!!

Robert

March 2nd

Hello,
Tanner had a set back this weekend, on Sunday within an hours time he went from doing well and hoping to go home on Monday too, fevers of 104 plus and severe stomach pain, they preformed an x-rays and then a full body scan, he once again has Tyflitis. This is like a large open sore in his stomach area. He is currently on 3 antibiotics as well as pain meds, and no food or liquids, he is feeling much better now and is able to have ice chips, so we are hoping to maybe go home this weekend but the Dr's need to see him improve to eating a little with no pain before that happens.
I'm not sure if we have told you about Tanner's bone marrow donor, he is an amazing 24 year old young man who is willing donate his bone marrow. He is a 10 out of 10 match, we are so grateful, our prayers have been heard and answered We are not aloud to know anymore until a year after transplant, which we look forward too.
Please know of our love and appreciation for all of you.
Love Krisit