4/29/08

Hi everyone..... I wanted to try to give you all a layout of the next few days and the schedule leading up to the transplant. I wanted to wait until I spoke to Mrs. Green to make sure I had everything correct before posting, so I apologize for the delay.
BJ will go to UAB tomorrow (Wed) to sign all of the required forms, tour the bone marrow transplant unit, and speak to his doctors. Thursday, BJ will go back to UAB to have two Hickman catheters put in. For those of you that just started reading the blog, the Hickman catheter is a device that is implanted into BJ's chest to give him his medications and also draw blood. It cuts down on the number of times he has to be stuck with a needle and he doesn't have to deal with an IV in his arm. After he gets the Hickmans in place they are going to give him his first round of a medication called Palifermin. My understanding is that this medication will help reduce some of the side-effects of the chemo, in particular the sores that develop in his mouth. He will go to UAB Thursday, Friday, and Saturday for that medicine. Sunday will be a day off, so hopefully he will have a chance to relax and take it easy. Monday, they will do a test round of the chemo. I am assuming that this would be to check for any adverse side-effects. If all goes well, they will admit him to the hospital Tuesday (May 6th) and start the chemo Wednesday. The chemo will basically wipe his immune system clean to prepare him to receive the transplant donor's cells on May 14th. The estimated time frame they give for this treatment is 100 days. Approximately 20 days in the hospital and 80 days at home. These days could vary some one way or the other depending on his body's reaction. He will be staying at his parent's home in Gardendale for those 80 days because he has to be 20 minutes or less from the hospital.

As you all know, moving towards the transplant is what BJ wanted. But, we all can imagine this also has to be a pretty scary time for him and his family. I think if anyone is up for this battle, it is BJ. He is the strongest person I know and he has a tremendous desire to get through this and make something positive out of it. Everyone please continue to pray for him and his family.

As I mentioned before, I will be posting more often now so check in regularly. Talk to you soon.

4/25/08 - Finally!!

Hey everyone.....I got a text from BJ tonight with some great news. He was at the ballgame so I don't have all of the details.....only that the transplant is a GO! He will go into the hospital on May 6th and the transplant will be on May 14th. I know he must be relieved that there weren't anymore setbacks. He has a tough fight in front of him, but as all of you know, he's a pretty tough guy himself and I know he will be up to it. I will give you all more details as I get them. I am sure I will be posting more often now that things are gearing up, so please check in regularly and post comments for BJ. He is going to need all of our prayers and positive thoughts in the upcoming months. Talk to you soon.

4/22/08

Hey everyone..... I just wanted to let everyone know that BJ did have his bone marrow test today as scheduled. He won't know the results until the end of the week, so he asked that everyone just pray for good results. If everything goes well, he should be able to move forward towards the transplant.

I also wanted to say a special thanks to everyone involved with organizing the poker tournament this past weekend. I know all of the players had a good time, and more importantly a lot of money was raised to benefit BJ's foundation. When I get the final numbers of the money raised, I will pass them along.

Hopefully, by the end of the week BJ will get the news he has been hoping for. I will update all of you as soon as I can.

4/15/08

Hey everyone.....I wanted to give everyone an update on BJ's trip to UAB yesterday. They did blood work and his white blood cell count was down to 8,300. His platelets were also low, around 30,000. The doctors have scheduled him for another bone marrow biopsy a week from today. If everything goes well with that, then they will start moving toward the transplant. So everyone pray for good results next week. If I get any new information between now and then I will post it.

Also, everyone remember the poker tournament to benefit BJ's foundation is this weekend. Information about the tournament is in the "Upcoming Events" section on the right side of the page. Hopefully there will be a good turnout and a lot of money raised. Talk to you soon.

4/9/08 - A Good Day

Hi everyone... BJ got some good news today! The medications they gave him to lower his white blood cell count continued to work and his count was down to 13,000. The doctors were very encouraged, so much so that want to start moving forward with the transplant. BJ was really excited about the news. He will go back to UAB Monday to make sure everything is still okay with his blood. Given everything is okay, they will try to get a date set for the transplant.

BJ told me he felt good about the news and was ready to move forward. He feels like the longer he waits just leaves more opportunity for something else to go wrong, so the sooner the better. So, let's hope for more good news Monday. If anything happens between now and then, I will let you know. Talk to you soon.

4/7/08

Hello everybody..... I just wanted to give everyone a brief update. I got a text from BJ this afternoon following his appointment. He said his white blood cell count was down to 45,000, so the medicine is working. The doctors were encouraged and told him to keep taking the medicine and come back Wednesday for another follow-up. Hopefully, he will get more good news then. Keep praying and I will give you any new information as soon as I get it.

4/4/08

Hey guys......First, I want to apologize for not posting yesterday. When I spoke to Mrs. Green last night, there was a lot of new information and terminology to report. She asked me to talk to Dana before posting to make sure I had all of the correct information.

BJ did have a lot to take in yesterday. His leukemia has moved into the Accelerated Phase. There are three phases Chronic, Accelerated, and Blastic. So, he is in the second phase. This is obviously not the information he was hoping for. He also found out that he now has a Triple Phildelphia Chromosome. Apparently this is very rare. The bone marrow doctor said he has only seen it a couple of times. This probably means he will be getting a little extra attention when he goes back to the hospital, because UAB is a teaching hospital and I'm sure they will be watching him quite closely.

He did get some good news.... The spot on his lung is better and they didn't seem worried about the spot on his liver. They said that spot is a leukemia spot, but that was to be expected. I initially thought this was bad news, but Dana told me that CML is not like other cancers, in which you hear liver and automatically think bad news. Because CML affects your blood the liver does it's job and catches it like a filter. So, the good news is that it is not an infection that would delay the transplant.

Speaking of transplant, they are still planning on doing it maybe sooner rather than later. They have put him back on two medications to lower his white blood cell count. He hasn't been on them for several weeks now and his counts have gotten extremely high again. From what I understand, if they can get his counts down where they need to be they would like to move forward with the transplant. He will know more about that in the next week or so after seeing his body's reaction to the medication.

Sorry to be so long, but there was a lot of new information. BJ was obviously a little frustrated and maybe overwhelmed by all of this news yesterday. He could really use some good news, so pray that his body responds well to the medicine. Keep his family in your prayers as well, and I will update with any new information as soon as I get it. Have a good weekend.

4/2/08

Hey everyone.....I don't have much news today. As of late this afternoon, BJ still did not have an update on the bone marrow test. The doctors have scheduled an appointment for tomorrow at 1:00. I hope to have some more news after that and I will relay it to you. Keep him in your thoughts.

Talk to you tomorrow.

4/1/08

Hi everyone..... I wanted to update everyone on the results from BJ's liver biopsy. The final test of the five came back negative, so the spots are not a concern, which is great news. I tried to wait and see if he got any results back from the bone marrow test before I posted, but those results were not finalized. I wanted to give everyone the information I did have, so it's one down and one to go. Hopefully, they will call tomorrow with some good news.

I will update as soon as BJ calls me with the results. Keep the prayers and good thoughts coming.