Serry Lee

...So good to me...

Well, to SERRY, that is. It's her LAST MONDAY of radiation. Anybody want to raise the roof?! :) 4 more days, one more chemo (of this cycle) and then it's OVER!!! Here's what we need:
*Continued high white blood cell counts
*SOUND sleep
*Peace and rest for Serry AND the family
*More calories going in and being digested (the radiation is burning Serry's throat--so it's pretty painful to swallow "real" food)
*The effects of the current chemo to dissipate over the next few weeks.

OK, I've promised this for awhile and (now that it's past my bedtime) it's time for me to give you a little peek into the future. Here goes:

As we all know, radiation and this round of chemo ends this Thursday (YEAH BUDDY!). :) After that, Serry will need approximately 6 weeks to recover from the treatment she's received. It's pretty amazing that the things that are designed to help us also hurt us. Therefore, I think she's looking VERY MUCH forward to some recovery time. They've said that it'll take a few weeks for her to start feeling better and for some of the symptoms to dissipate. That puts her feeling better a little before Christmas--HAPPY! :)

During her recovery time, Serry will still be actively healing. She'll be making trips up north again to allow the doctors to harvest her stem cells. There are a few ways that they can do this, but, last I heard at least, they'll be hooking her up to a machine that will filter cells out of her bloodstream. I'm not exactly sure how that works, I just know that it sounds MUCH more pleasant than withdrawing bone marrow--which was another option! They will store these stem cells for use after her next rounds of chemo.

So that brings us to the chemo discussion. After her 6-ish week "vacation," probably around the first of the year, Serry will begin chemotherapy. If you remember, the chemo that she's on right now is sort of a generic chemo. It's given to many cancer patients, and is often used as a "wake-up call" for the body. Sort of a starter chemo--like an unpleasant appetizer. The chemo that she'll be getting in January is... well, intense, to say the least. We're killing cancer here, and they're going to be treating it as aggressively as possible. After she's given the chemo, she will need to have her stem cells transplanted back into her body. The chemo will have killed off her white blood cells--and the stem cells are what will make her body produce more. This process lasts about a month. Then it's Rinse and Repeat... four times. It will be a long four months... but it will only be a memory in April or May.

If you're the praying sort, please keep Serry in prayer in preparation for that time. I'm not really sure what we're going to be facing ahead... I haven't done much reading about stem cell transplants or anything--I know it's going to be hard, but---and Serr, this note is for you---Serry can do ANYTHING she sets her mind to. (You should have seen her as a kid... shimmying up trees that shouldn't hold anyone's weight, sledding on the edge of the gravel pit--she's crazy.)

Oh, and a special note just for Serry's friends at CB (did I get the acronym right? I always get it mixed up) at WSU:
You. Are. Amazing.
Seriously. Serry got your cards and gifts on Saturday night... and cherishes everything. Your hearts, your generosity, your love... Serry was in tears--she misses you so much and can't believe how much you care. THANK YOU.

That's all for tonight.