All set

I got a call today from MD Anderson, and everything is finally settled with the insurance company, and they are coordinated with Baylor (all my neurology stuff is through Baylor, all the transplant stuff is through MD Anderson). So I'll be going to Houston next week for the final bunch of test and procedures. I'll go in early Wednesday morning and should be done by Friday afternoon.

The list of stuff is:
1. Bone marrow aspiration
2. Chest X-ray
3. EKG (I already did this, don't know why they need another)
4. Placement of central line catheter so I don't have to keep getting IV's
5. Lumbar puncture
6. MRI
7. Assorted blood work

I'm mostly afraid of #1, #4, and #5, probably in that order.

Then the week after I start the conditioning regimen to get ready for the stem cell collection. This involves shots of Nupagin which stimulates the release of stem cells from the bone marrow so that they can be collected through apheresis instead of through a bone marrow extraction (the bone marrow aspiration I'll be doing is just a biopsy). After a few days of shots I'll go in for the collection which I think takes a few days. The stem cell collection process should take about 2 weeks.Then I'll go into the hospital, my estimation is the first week of May. I'll have a 4 week hospital stay for chemotherapy and then the transplant, and then 2 weeks at an out-patient place in Houston, and then I'll be done!

If everything goes well, I'll be discharged to go home 2 weeks before Rachel's wedding. It is cutting it a little close, but I think it will be ok. Then I can record my bald head for all prosperity in Rachel's wedding photos.
Ben and I are trying to work out all the details. I think my mom is coming out next week to be with me in the hospital, and Ben will work from home Wed-Fri and look after the boys. After that, I'm not sure. I don't necessarily need anyone with me at all until I'm discharged to the out-patient place, although it would probably be good to have Ben there during the chemotherapy phase. I think we're mostly just taking it a week at a time at this point.
It will be good to get this all over with!
I hope the boys handle everything ok. I think it is kind of good that there will be a few weeks where I'm gone for a bit, but keep coming back for a day or two, before I'm gone permanently. Well, for 4 weeks anyway, which I think feels sort of "permanent" to 4 and 6 year olds. I can't have any visitors under age 12 at the hospital. :-(

So what else has been going on besides waiting for all of this to finally get worked out? Mosey has been sick for the past week. I really think he is just about better. He hasn't run a fever in more than 48 hours now, although he's still coughing a lot. He missed preschool both days this week.
I've been working on taxes. Yep, there's a barrel of laughs. Actually I think we'll end up with a refund which is surprising. Things were made complicated by the fact that we had that other house which wasn't our "main home," nor was it officially "rental property." But I think we figured it all out. We couldn't locate our tithing settlement form, so I have to wait till I get another printout on Sunday before I can officially file. I always have good intentions, but I end up never filing until a couple of days before the deadline. Oh well, I guess the government is getting full interest-benefits of our tax dollars before giving us our refund.

Brigham and Joseph are doing pretty well. Joseph is having a little trouble with TV-temptation. It's weird, we've gone the whole school year with *very* little trouble with our TV rule (no TV Mon.-Thurs.) up until the past 3 weeks, and every day Joseph's been sneaking off to watch the cartoon channel. I even disconnected the cable one day and he figured out how to connect it back up. We've had some interesting discussions on temptation, and I think I may just remove the cable from the TV entirely. They like to watch DVD's and there's just nothing worthwhile on TV at all except animal planet. I particularly hate most of what is on the Cartoon Network, especially in the afternoons. And the more TV Joseph watches (all the kids, really, but Joseph is the one in question here), the more grumpy and ornery he becomes. There is a direct correlation between the amount of TV he watches and the number of times he says, "It's boring in this house!" and "There's nothing to do!" I told him the more he says those things the more I know he's been watching too much TV. My theory is that TV watching atrophies the think-of-something-interesting-to-do part of the brain (Dave, that is the technical term for a real part of the brain, right?). I've told the boys a thousand times that too much TV turns their brains into mush. Ok, maybe not literally, but I think it seriously does hamper their imagination and creativity. Ben and I watch so little TV, there really isn't even any point to have the cable hooked up all the time. Too much temptation for little children.

Ok, it's nearly 1:00 AM and I have tons to do tomorrow, so I'll close this boring letter right here.