Don: Looks like they just might be asking Karen to stay in the Gainesville area after she gets out today. They want her to come to clinic for lab work on Friday. This is a real bummer because this month the boys didn’t get to come to G’ville for a visit even though they were out of school. I have gone back to work and it looks like it may be harder than before for me to get to go back when Karen starts her next consolidation cycle. That will be cycle #3. She is really being a trooper but the time she is in Gainesville away from the family is very hard on all of us. It is great that her parents are available and have a real desire to be there for her when I can not be there, but it still isn’t the same as being home. I think that part of this whole scenario is even harder mentally and emotionally than the chemo!

Still, we pray for the best final outcome first and then for the trip to be tolerable! Looking forward to getting Karen home for good. We love you Baby!

Don: When it comes to Karen and I missing a few days of posting on http://KarensDay.com the old saying “No news is good news” really is true. It means that everything is normal. We aren’t having any trouble. Today is also a ‘normal’ day. It is day 17 and Karen’s counts were low enough that they are giving her 2 bags of blood and a bag of platelets. It is 12:40pm and we are only on bag 1. We will be here a while today. While that sounds boring (and it is) it is OK because this is what it takes to stay in her good conidition while going through the treatments. Thanks for the prayers and please keep them coming.

Don: It has been cloudy and gray with a little rain since we got here on Tuesday. Today we had only a little bit of clouds way off on the horizon that helped the sun throw off some pretty colors at sunrise. We are on the eighth floor and get to watch the sun come up over Payne’s Prairie. Very pretty. Of course now the sun is going to shine into the room most of the day. It is a little inconvient. I really had been enjoying the weather as it was. Especially when we stayed the first two days in the camper and you could hear the rain. Though the rain on the window the other day of our 8th floor room was cool too!

Karen is on bag 4 out of 6 in this round of treatment. We went running around a little bit yesterday afternoon. We don’t get to go to church this morning but will get to see our friends there next week and the week after. No chemo tonight or Monday morning. Last two bags are Monday night and Tuesday morning. Check out around noon. I have to be back at work on Monday. Thats all the news of now…

Thank you all for coming by.

Don: Since every thing that we do in the hospital is based what day number we are on, I write the day # on my calendar. We were supposed to have Day 1 on Tuesday. Like Karen told you already, that didn’t happen. So I make changes to my calendar. For those of you who may be doing the same at home, I hope you aren’t using ink. It is Thursday morning and we are still not in the hospital. They bumped us again. Someone else got a fever and had to be admitted. That may be frustrating for us but could have saved the life of the other person.

They have told us that we will get in today. We hope so but will be calm and wait and see. I have really enjoyed the last two days. I can’t remember the last time that Karen and I spent two days together just by ourselves with nothing to do and not in the hospital. Plus, like she told you, she is feeling good. You don’t have to look hard in any situation to find something negative, but I am here to tell you that if you don’t look for the negative, you will find it easier to enjoy the positive moments in your life.

We will send you another note as things happen. We hope the next one will say that Karen has checked in and started this round.

Don: Well, it is Christmas Eve for us at least. It is Friday, December 11, 2009. We will be celebrating Christmas tomorrow (Saturday) because Karen and I will be in Gainesville when December 25th rolls around. Karen has done a great job getting the home ready. We have Jacob, Dylan and Heather with us tonight. Grandpa Ken, Grandma Madeline, Laura, Darren and Cody will be here first thing in the morning. Presents are wrapped and ready. Breakfast menu has been planned and food bought. It is going to be great!

God has been very good to us. Our loving family extends well beyond blood and marriage. We are truly blessed by each and every visitor to the site. Karen especially enjoys the comments and prayers of support and they really do help. Thank you all very much for being part of our support family. Sorry we haven’t done any writing since we came home. We hope you understand that we have been busy preparing for this celebration and just spending time with the kids (when I am not at work). It is hard to believe that Karen got home Tuesday afternoon. She has to check in on next Tuesday for the second consolidation treatment. But that is then and tonight is CHRISTMAS EVE!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Don: I worked late Friday. In fact I worked until a little after 10:00pm. Then I headed for Gainseville. Well, I tried to head to Gainesville. I had to mess around trying to make sure my tires were aired up. The first place I went let more out than it put in. I ended turning around and going back a little ways to get air. It was about 11:00 (12:00 Gainseville time) when I was at Hwy 20 and Hwy 231. I got in 4 hours later. Karen was very happy to see me. She had told me I shouldn’t come down since I had to work Monday morning. She wasn’t any happier to see me than I was to she her! I was missing her. The weekend is over and I just got in. Itis 1:30 and I have to get up at 6:00am so I guess you all get lucky and I am keeping this one short!

We went to North Central Baptist again this week. Met more people. It really is a nice church. Pastor Calvin didn’t preach today. The visitor made a good presentation but I look forward hearing Pastor Calvin in a couple weeks. We will both be in PC next weekend. Not sure which church we will visit but I am sure we will go somewhere! Then we did a little shopping and ate dinner tonight at Pizza Hut.

Almost forgot. We moved from Payne’s Prairie today. The new place is technically a little farther down the road but is about the same driving time because of how slow and far it was from the old campsite to Hwy 441. We think we will like it here even better and we really liked Payne’s Prairie.

Karen will be home by Thursday and gone again the following Tuesday. Should be feeling well and counts up. I am sure she will spend most of her time with the kids and doing a little visiting during the day while they are in school. Plus has a stack of mail to go through!!

Don: I know that most of you would rather see a post from Karen when you come here. Thanks for understanding that some times you are just going to get another dose of Don. I talked with Karen a few times today (Friday). It was a long morning at the hospital and that is good news. That means it wasn’t a long DAY at Shands. The lab work yesterday let them know that Karen needed some platelets and some blood. So they got her cocktails ready and gave them to her this morning. This should keep her all fixed up for the whole weekend. She won’t have to go to Shands until Monday morning for more labs.

If it seems like most of these messages say the same thing it is because that is the nature of the beast. They watch her close and check her blood levels. If she needs some things they give them to her. She will reach a point that her body starts taking care of itself and they will not have to give her anything. Then after the 28 day cycle ends we go do it again. We are a little past the halfway point of this round. For those keeping track she had one month of the induction round and this is the first consolidation round. Today is day 17.

So the normal consolidation is: hospital for 6 days, getting chemo for two hours twice a day on day one, day 3 and day 5. Released on day 6. Her labs stay up for a few days and then go down around day 10-14 and then go up after about a week. They do labs about every other day and give her what she needs, when she need it. She needs to be at Shands on day 21 and 22 for procedures and exams due to the research program she is participating in. By then she should have good ‘counts’ and we can go to Panama City for about a week. I hope that helps clear up what is normal.

If you are still following me then you probably understand that we are at the bottom of the monthly cycle. Karen doesn’t feel very well today. Her parents are with her this week. She misses the kids and me. She is a little sad. About now I expect that one or two of you might have looked at the Subject of this message and are asking, “How in the world are -Things going really well?” It’s all relative. You know the cycle that we are on with these treatments. Well Karen and her body is reacting exactly the way you would expect for anyone in this program. To us that is a blessing and we count it as such.

She will be lots happier tomorrow. We have 2 or 3 surprises lined up for her. One of them is me. I can let you know because she can’t get to the internet tonight so when I get there it will still be a surprise to her! Please say a prayer for Karen’s continued spiritual, mental and physical well being and leave a comment now and then. Your support, prayers and just knowing you are coming by to visit go a very long way in Karen’s recovery. We love and appreciate you all for being here.

Don: We have stayed at Payne’s Prairie for about as long as they can let us be there. It is a state park and they do have rules. They have extended our stay twice already. This means that we are looking for a place to park the large 5th wheel camper and truck. We may be able to go back to the state park for a period of time after we have been gone for a little while. We would like to find a place to put the camper for 5-6 months so that we would not have to worry about moving it again.

So here is the favor. Do you have or do you know someone who has a parking space? We are open to suggestions and are willing to be next to a barn, in someone’s yard or another RV park. Those of you that know Karen know that next to a barn is probably her top choice! At a minimum we need water and electricity. Septic/sewer hook up is a plus. Maybe you know someone in Gainesville who has an appartment near Shands or not near Shands? Perhaps a little Mother-in-law place over the garage?

We might be able to get into the Hope Lodge at some point but we have friends who just got in after being on the list for 7 weeks. We definitely must do something quicker than that. We are only just starting our search and I couldn’t think of a better way to start than to ask the people who know and love Karen if they could help. We look forward to hearing your suggestions! If you would like to email us with your thoughts and don’t already have our email address it is Karen <at> KarensDay.com. Sorry I can’t post it for you as a clickable link but you know those bad robot programs would scoop it up and use it to spend us spam.

Don: Karen had an OK day at her Shands appointment. It was another long day. We talked a few times today but never long enough and we both wish she was in Panama City. I spent another long day at work. I just got home after not leaving the office until 10:00. I never seem to get caught up when I get to come home. The worst part is that even though I am in town I don’t get home in time to even see Jacob and Dylan, much less spend any time with them.

Karen and I spend much of our time on the phone talking about the boys and looking forward to spending time with them soon. It is impossible to make any real plans as each trip to the Dr. is another change in what we thought might be the plan for the next few days or a week. We just keep on going to the Dr. and waiting for them to tell us what they think might be on the agenda. Bottom line again today is that we are waiting for Karen’s numbers to start going up. She has not bottomed out yet from this round of treatment. We might be about there though. Today is day 15. We have a totally unofficial goal of her coming home after appointments on day 21 and 22. It might be for almost a week but we aren’t sure and aren’t counting on that happening.

Keep Karen and our family in your prayers and send her comments if you have time. She loves hearing from all of you, often!

Don: I am back in Panama City and Karen is with her parents in Gainesville. Yesterday the Dr. gave Karen some platelets because she was down to 16k and they didn’t want to risk her dropping too low on Sunday. The lowest they want before they must give them to her is 10k. She has an appointment Monday morning. This is when we should start to see if she is still going down on her blood counts or starting back up. We may not have the whole picture until the next appointment on Wednesday.

Sunday morning she put on her mask and hat andwe all went to church. We again went to North Central Baptist of Gainesville. I sure do enjoy Pastor Calvin and that church. Then we did a little shopping. We missed Black Friday and Saturday because we need to avoid crowded places where there may be people walking around with colds and worse. Today was pretty sparse in the two stores we visited. We walked around quite a while. Karen is really doing good as far as her energy after just having chemo last week.

Karen should be able to post a message tomorrow morning while at Shands. Thanks for the prayers everyone. We still have months to go so please keep it up.