Chemo is Finished

Greetings from Nathan’s hospital room in the bone marrow transplant unit. Today is day nine which means the eight days of high dose chemo are over (yeah!). Today and tomorrow are (much needed) rest days for Nathan as he has been hit pretty hard with the chemo. His white blood cell count is at 0.3. The staff here is really good at staying on top of Nathan’s pain and nausea control due to chemo. So far he has continued to have a decent appetite and is able to keep his food down. He is pretty exhausted and sleeps a lot, however, yesterday Nathan and Carol put together a small puzzle and went for a 15 minute walk. We did some decorating in Nathan’s room – his bulletin board is full with pictures of grandparents, family and friends and we found a way to hang this prayer quilt on the wall beside his bed. It adds a warm and caring touch to the room. The nurses and staff marvel at the love and care from so many people that went into making this quilt. Again we are reminded by this quilt of all the prayers that surround Nathan and our family during this difficult time. Thank you!! Washington Mennonite Church put together a “sunshine” box for Nathan. So he has a small gift to open each day to be reminded of the love and care from our church family in Washington. We are truly blessed by the love and care from family, church and friends that surround and hold us up at this time. The doctors say everything is going as scheduled and looks good. The doctors, nurses and staff on the unit here are great. Continue to remember them in your prayers. Continue to pray that the chemo will destroy all the little microscopic cancer cells that linger in Nathan’s body and that his organs will not be damaged by the high doses of chemo he has received. Pray that Nathan will have the strength he needs for each day and that he will not get any life threatening illness during this time when his white cell count is so low. Thursday is stem cell transplant day. This is really a simple procedure of receiving his own stem cells back through IV. However, it is a big day in that it marks the day from which we wait for Nathan’s bone marrow to begin making white blood cells, platelets, hemoglobin and all the other necessary blood cells we need for survival. May the love and peace of God surround you this day as we are also held in God’s love here in the hospital. Thanks for your prayers.

Tim Detweiler