A great new look for Fran!

Fran was able to get her wig styled by a dear friend Jim Rood this morning and she looks great. After this appointment she spent some time with Emily and Ben at their home and while Ben was taking his afternoon nap, Fran rested while Emily ran some errands. I picked her up around 3 and we went over to Blue Ridge Cancer Care for some blood work. The results were good for what they could read there and we are just waiting for some more extensive results that will come in tomorrow. There's no reason to expect anything but good from them as well.
Still dealing with the open wounds but they may be getting better. We will be able to go Friday morning at 8:30 for her colonoscopy.
We went to Cracker Barrel for dinner tonight and enjoyed that outing.
I hope everyone has a great Tuesday.
Charlie

No hair day

Yes, that's right, thanks to Will and Robert the hair is gone! When Fran woke up this am, hair was everywhere on the pillow, it was getting in her food and mouth so after I left for church this morning Fran asked Will to help her cut her hair. Will buzzed her and then when Robert, Emily and Ben arrived Will and Robert shaved her head. What a pleasant surprise when I arrived home from church. Fran is still the most beautiful girl in the world. Of course there were tears but I told her she had to go through this to get better. Will, Robert and Emily and of course Ben were just fantastic today. Fran is going to see Jim Rood tomorrow morning so he can style her new wig!

As I said yesterday, Fran has a few open wounds that need to heal before we can proceed with the stem cell transplant. So naturally our prayer request is that the healing will begin and begin soon. She will call Dr. Kevin Dye in the morning to re-schedule her colonoscopy. She will also go to see Dr. Richards for blood work. Overall she is doing well and we are just playing the waiting game.

Thanks for your prayers! Charlie and Fran

We're home

It has been a long Friday and Sat. We left Friday morning at 5am and made it to Duke at 8:05. After the blood work Fran needed blood and platelets plus other assorted drips. We finally began the stem cell harvesting at 1:30 and thanks to all the prayer warriors out there she was finished (yes finished) by 5:30 with enough stem cells for two transplants. The Dr.s and nurses were very pleased. They told us to come in this morning at 8:30 just to check her blood to make sure everything was Ok and after all the drips on Friday we were pretty confidant we would be out by 9 NOT....

She needed more blood and lots of other "coctails" to get her electorlytes back into shape this morning. We fianlly left Durham this afternoon at 3:15 a little discouraged. She hadn't had much time with Natalie and the family was getting together at Red Robin for dinner. We did make it there by 5:30 to see everyone. Natalie and Jordan have gone back to Elkton tonight because she has to go to work tomorrow morning.

Now we have to wait several weeks before we go back, there are some other "issues" that need to be taken care of before we can harvest the stem cells. She will go on Monday to see her Dr. here to check blood counts again.

PLease pray for her encouragement, her hair is finally beginning to come out. (enough said).
Thanks for your continued prayers and love.
Charlie

We're home from hospital!

Fran got home this am around 11. The numbers took a big jump from yesterday so Duke said "Come on Down!" We have to be at Duke tomorrow (Friday) at 8am to begin stem cell harvesting. We will just have to wait and see how long it takes. Our prayer is that it will only take one day to harvest enough stem cells for two transplants. Natalie is in town, so we hate to leave her but she understands.
Charlie

Wednesday evening

Another day just like yesterday. Fran is still in Lewis Gale. She is getting stronger and feeling better. Her blood count is coming up slowly but it still was not high enough to come home. Hopefully tomorrow it will be. We still don't know anything about when we will be returning to Duke. We are celebrating Natalie's birthday this weekend, so hopefully we won't have to go to Duke. She is coming in tomorrow morning and we are looking forward to seeing her.
We will keep everyone updated.
Charlie

Tue. March 8 LONG DAY

This has been an interesting day. We got home from the hospital last night around 11:15 pm. Fran had the 2 units of blood and an antibiotic drip while at Lewis Gale. Just as soon as we got home last night we checked her temp and it was around 101. 30 min. later we took it again around 12:30 am and it spiked at 102 so we immediately headed back to the emergency room.

After seeing the Dr. and CT scan, a chest xray at 5am Fran was admitted into the hospital. She has been there all day, getting platelets, and a myriad of antibiotics. Needless to say she is feeling alot better tonight but she stayed again at the hospital. We have talked to Duke and they are not concerned at all. If the blood work comes back OK we can head on down to NC. That may be tomorrow or the next day or next week, we are just waiting.

So that has been our long day, I'm getting ready to go to bed and Fran is too. The nurse told Fran they will be in at 4am in the morning to draw more blood so they can check it out again.

Thanks for your concern and continued prayer support!
Charlie and Fran

No go for Duke today

Monday afternoon, March 8 - We didn't get to go to Duke today. Fran's blood levels were so low they admitted her into Lewis Gale for 2 blood transfusions. This will take about 6 hours so hopefully we will come home around 9 tonight. This explains why she was feeling so bad over the weekend. Hopefully this new blood will give her a boost and then we will just wait to hear from Duke. She will go to her Dr. here in Roanoke on Wed. for another blood test. Then we will wait and see what happens.
Charlie