Nicole and Matt Before Transplant

2-14-08 of Matthew

Happy Valentines Day.....

Matthew receved his Bone Marrow on Feb. 14th, 2008. His Sister Nicole came to Children's Hospital at 6:00 am to get ready for the big day. Everything went smoothly and Nicole donated 650cc's of Bone Marrow for Matt. To make things easier to calculate there are 30cc's in every ounce, and if you do the math, thats about 21 to 22 ounces of Bone Marrow. It looks just like a blood transfusion.
Nicole was in recovery for a few hours but was able to go home with her Dad around 1:00pm. Steve was with Matt while I was with Nicole so Steve took some pictures of Matt's new Birthday.
Matthew has had a few side effect's from the Transplant, but I told him that it was just his Sister giving him one more punch, He laughed.
Today is Post Transplant Day 3, and Matt is doing good. He is going to have Chemo on Day 1,3,6,&11 to help him NOT develop GVHD. They are trying to make him comfortable as possible because the next 10 Days will be very tough on him. At about Day 14 Post he should be able to show signs of some response to the Transplant. We are keeping a positive attitude because your mind has a huge influence on your recovery and Matt knows that.
Nicole will be going back to school on the 19th but with some restrictions, No P.E. or Dance Class for a week or two. Nicole is a true fighter and dosen't stay down for long. Steve and I are very proud of what Nicole has done, she is a very special girl.
Thank you all for your thoughts and prayer's, keep them coming I do believe that is making a BIG difference in the road we are going down. Thanks Again the Yantzer's

UPDATE ON RADIATION

Matthew has completed 8 trips by ambulance to the UofW for radiation treatments with great results. Matt joked with the ambulance crew to and from the hospitals. The team at UofW let Matt listen to Creed, Queen, and Ted Nugent CD'S while in the radiation room. One of the staff at UofW asked Matt not to bring to noisy of music his last 2 treatments because they were really early in the morning. Matt and I think they were country lovers and couldn't handle GOOD ROCK MUSIC.
Matt had 2 day's of really extensive Chemo to get him ready for the transplant.He dosen't feel to good today the 13th. The nurses are all really helpful here at children's hospital, they are giving Matt lots of medicines to make him more comfortable.
Tomorrow the 14th is the big day. Nicole will be addmited at 6:15 a.m. and should be able to go home with Dad that afternoon. She is a little nervous but is being strong.
Matt wishes everyone a Happy Valentines Day, and says Hi to everyone. We will update this blog soon after the transplant. Talk to you all soon,Lynn & Family

Hopfully 1 Last Speed Bump !!!!

Well at our last meeting with SCCA we were gearing up for radiation and being admitted to Children's Hospital. But with great disappointment we were put on hold again because of the RSV virus going through SCCA's facility. There were 3 patients that have contracted the virus in the last 2 weeks so lock down is in place again at SCCA. This Virus is very dangerous to transplant patients and could prove fatal to a patient if they get it during the transplant possess.

With Matthew's new schedule we will have more testing on Superbowl Sunday to make sure that he is well, so far He and his Sister Nicole are. Matt will have his last LP Chemo on Monday the 4th, then 2 days of rest, then finally we start the full body radiation on the 7th. Matt will have doses of radiation twice a day for 4 days, then 2 days of extensive Chemo, then 1 day of rest, and then Finally the transplant will take place on February 14th valentines day. All of Matt's testing looks good so far, and his Leukemia is in remission for now.

We hope this next week goes a little more smoothly than last. We are living in Seattle by the UofW arboretum. It's hard to get used to the noises of a busy city at night, but we are getting used to it. Our duplex is only about 5 minutes from UofW Hospital and about 9 minutes from Children's Hospital.

Both Matthew and Nicole wish everyone their best. Matt cant wait to have visitors and Nicole cant wait to see her friends too. Thank You for all your Love and Support the Yantzer's

The Big Countdown

January 15th Matthew and Nicole went to Seattle for 2 weeks of extensive testing at SCCA, Children's Hospital and UofW Hospital. Nicole just got lots of blood drawn and that's about it. Matt has a little more testing to see if he is strong enough to withstand the transplant. They check out all his organs and take lots of blood. One day we had 10 different appointments with 10 different people, wow that was hard. They are adjusting his medicines to get him ready. Matt is on 12 different meds every day. On the 25th Dr. Hickman will be putting his double looman Hickman line in his chest and taking his PICC line out. Because of the RSV going on up here they will admit Matt to Children's hospital on the 29th witch is his 1st day of radiation. Matt will get radiation twice a day for 4 days, then 2 rounds of really strong chemo, then 1 day off for good behavior. Finally on the 5th of February Nicole will give her bone marrow to Matt. Nicole should be able to go home the same day with about 1 week to recover. Matt will be in Children's hospital for approx 30 days so they can closely watch him to see if it is a success. If all is going well he will be discharged on an out patient basis for approx 90 days. Matt will have to see the Doctors daily to watch his progress. During that time we have rented a 3 bedroom Duplex in Seattle. It's really quite nice but very small. Our duplex is one of several in the area that are rented out just to Cancer patients, it's very clean. The Doctors say that Matt wont be able to go back to school till 1 year after transplant. We are lucky to have a very nice tutor that Matt likes. A big thank you to everyone 's help through out this prosess. Matt is staying possitive (that's the only way to be he say's). Keep in touch he really enjoy's the comments and e-mails. Thanks again the Yantzer Family

A Promising New Year!

January 1, 2008

The year of 2007 has finally ended and I wanted to offer some the highlights that finally brought this year to a close. I'll call this the good, the bad and the ugly.

The Good:
The blood drive that took place in December had over sixty three people signed up with forty eight pints collected with thirty of these being first time donors. I hear this is some kind of first time record which makes me feel really good because the blood is so important to the successful recovery of Leukemia patients. This is a picture of me next to the blood mobile where I got the chance to meet a lot of the people and say thank you.

I ended the year feeling pretty good and have started walking up to one half mile a day on the new treadmill. It's super cool with a two speaker system that you can plug your I-Pod into and pass the time listening to music. I plan on using this as much as I can to keep my muscle tone and build my strength for the transplant.

The Bad:
As you might have heard I was suppose to be in Seattle at SCCA as of December 26th but have been put on hold due to a RSV virus that is making a lot of people sick. We will have to wait another few weeks while this gets out of the clinic. The Chemo in December really sucked and made me sick enough that it was hard to eat. They called this part of the treatment consolidation but after this week will be putting me on the maintenance part of the treatment that should be easier to handle until the transplant starts. We are hoping to start at SCCA by mid January but are still waiting to hear on how things are up there so we don't have worry so much about getting sick .

The Ugly:
I'll break the ugly into two trips to the hospital since the start of Christmas break. The first one had to do with the last round of Chemo that made me sick enough that I had to stay for four nights to get past the headaches and start to eat. The second trip was just last Saturday morning, 2 am, when I passed another small kidney stone that really hurt. I once again found myself on the 6th floor at Mary Bridge and stayed Saturday night but came home Sunday. We brought the nurses a 20 pound tin of mini Hershey's chocolate bars that mad a lot of them smile, by the time I left on Sunday more that half the tin was already gone!

I'll finish this e-mail by saying that I'm feeling really good now and want to continue to get exercise, do my studies and look forward to getting notes and e-mails from all of you. It kind of sucks being stuck in the house 24/7 but I need to stay healthy for the transplant that I hope will happen soon.

Matthew Yantzer