What's been going on...

Picking up where I left off from our last post....

Keith received his stem cells on Tuesday, February 9th. That night he was up all night sicker than he has ever been. But the nurses stayed on top of things and he was better by morning. With all the chemo he endured, he was thankful to only have 1 night of sickness.
The night before he was discharged, Wednesday Feb. 17, he was up all night with bone pain. He said it felt like someone was drilling screws into his bones, mostly his legs, arms and hips. But it was a good sign, it meant the stem cells were engrafting back into his bones. He woke me up with his thrashing and moaning and we decided the Norco wasn't cutting it. We called the nurses and they gave him some Dilaudid through his PICC line and within a minute he was relaxed and not feeling the pain.
Keith was discharged from the hospital 3 days early on Thursday, February 18. Praise the Lord! He was discharged late in the day so we decided to stay at the hotel that night and head home early in the morning, Friday, Feb.19. It was so good to be home!

 We missed out on getting our picture with Dr. Burt, so this is

Allison, one of Dr. Burt's nurses, who made sure Keith was well taken care of.  She did rounds with Dr. Burt in the morning and then came alone in the afternoon.

The staff at Northwestern was amazing! ALL the nurses that took care of us were so friendly and wanted to know about Keith's process and even about our family. They all gasped when we said, "we have 4 boys!" It's OK, we are used to it. :)

Almost everyday was a beautiful, sunny day which helped with all the walking I did back and forth from the hospital to hotel. Some days were really windy and bitterly cold, but always sunny!

So what's next?

Keith needs to have his blood tested once a week to make sure his counts are going in the right direction. He has that done right at his doctors office, here. They fax his counts to Chicago and then Dr. Burt's office calls and lets us know how things are progressing.  He will need to have his blood tested once a week for 4 weeks, and then every other week for 4 weeks. In 6 months we will head back to Chicago for an MRI to make sure the lesions on his brain and spine have stopped growing. If those lesions stop growing or even fade away, the healing can begin of his nervous system. And that means gaining a healthy life back! The sooner you have the transplant done after you are diagnosed, the better chance of recovery you will have. Keith has noticed a few changes already, but it is still early, they say at 6 months post transplant he should be feeling like a new man. So stay tuned, we will update as he progresses. Right now he is weak from laying in a hospital bed for a few weeks, and he cannot be around crowds of people, his shop or barn, for a few months. Staying healthy at this point is huge! We are hoping he is able to start physical therapy next week to help gain some of his strength back. But otherwise he is feeling good!

We received some donations from a few friends that wanted the money to go to our kids so that they could do fun things when they came to Chicago to visit us. What a neat idea!

So, Friday night, February 12, Uncle Mike took the boys to Chicago and we went to Monster Jam! (Uncle Mike fell asleep! Sorry no pic.)

Then Uncle Steve, Aunt Karin, Kate, Aunt Taraynn and Delani, came to Chicago! We had fun taking the metro to Chinatown and watched some of the Chinese New Year Parade and ate Chinese food! It was snowing and freezing cold.

On Monday, February 15, the kids had off from school so they were able to stay Friday-Monday, so we went to the Field Museum. So fun for boys!

We also visited the Lego store a few times! 

The boys and Uncle Mike headed home Monday night.  Aunt Taraynn and Lani left Tuesday night, and Uncle Steve, Aunt Karin and Kate left Wednesday night.  We also had several visitors from our Church: Tuesday our friends Bob and Angela Telman came.  On Wednesday, our Elder Rick Diemer and his wife Kathy came with our Deacon Brian TenHaaf. We were blessed to have so many visitors to help pass the time!

We continue to be encouraged by our supporters. Thank you for the cards, gas cards, grocery cards, meals, goodies, etc! We are definitely feeling the love. :) We hold tight to our faith and God's promises and are excited to see what the future holds for Keith.  Love and blessings to you all!

Stem Cell Transplant

Yahoo! We made it. We thought this time would never get here. But GOD IS FAITHFUL!

On Wednesday, Febuary 3, we left for our final trip to Chicago. And boy! were we ready!

At 1pm that same day, Keith had a Triple lumen PICC line put in. This is for medication, hydration, chemo, blood draws, etc. Crazy spot, huh?

That night we stayed in the same hotel, Hilton Homewood suites, that we have been staying in on previous trips. I got a great deal through Travelocity for $81.75/night! I will be just sleeping & eating here, Keith will be staying at the hospital. On Thursday at 7:30am, Keith was admitted to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. His room was on the 15th floor, it was big, but it had one small window, and the view wasn't great. They right away told us that we would be moved to the 16th floor as soon as there was a bed available. The 16th floor is where Dr. Burt's patients are. 

The next day we were moved to the 16th floor to the exact same room we had during our last stay here. HA! Two big windows with a better view!

Also on Thursday, Keith started his first of 4 days of chemo. He would get chemo around 2pm each day and it would run for a couple of hours. (The chemo works to kill his immune system so it stops attacking his central nervous system. Once the immune system is killed, they put in the stem cells to jump start the growth of his new immune system.) They also gave him some anti-nausea meds to help him stay ahead of getting sick. He did great through all 4 days. He never got sick, but it drained him pretty good. A couple of laps in the hallway each day was enough to wear him out.

Friday afternoon, February 5, Keith's parents, Dale & Marla Nienhuis, came with our youngest 2 boys, Jaden & Josiah. Dale sat with Keith while me and the boys showed grandma the Water Tower Plaza, Lego Store, and we had to pick up more hand sanitizer, so we hit Bath & Body, too. Saturday night, we enjoyed some deep dish pizza. Other than that, we basically just hung out with Keith, and in our hotel room. They headed home Sunday noon.

Here we are at Gino's East, which is right behind our hotel and on-the-way to the hospital. We played 5 Crowns to pass the time. :)

Sunday night we watched the Super Bowl. Neither one of us had ever watched the whole thing, so we had to see what all the hype was about. We were both disappointed. Oh well, at least we know that we haven't been missing out all these years!

Monday. Keith is dragging, sleeping more than usual. He basically has no immune system, so he is pretty week, barely has a voice. Which most of you know, he barely had a voice to begin with. I'm ALWAYS saying, "what?" :)

Today is Tuesday, February 9th, the BIG DAY for him! New stem cells!!! Hopefully not a single one of the 9 million stem cells remembers anything to do with MS. Hopefully they are all babies and ready to begin a new, healthy life!

Frozen stem cells in big white container.

 Thawing stem cells.

 Stem cells coming back through IV.

So, everyone told us it smells like creamed corn when you get your stem cells back. Yep, the whole room smelt like it! So strange. 

Again, we pray for each of our supporters every day, and thank God for every one of you. I know we say this a lot, but we mean it! We would not be here, hoping for another chance at a healthy life, without God and without a single one of you! To God be the glory, great things He has done!! Love to you all!!

Missing these guys...the loves of our life!!