I can’t believe that I am so close to getting the proverbial carrot that I have been chasing for months. I am praising God and His faithful answer to prayers. Yesterday I received an email from Dr. Miklos at Stanford telling me that the PET scan showed no change and we were good to go this week as planned… HALLELUJAH!!!
I will be leaving this Thursday for Stanford. Sign consent forms, draw labs, and meet with Dr. Miklos on Friday. Monday they will take out my port and put in the catheter. Tuesday we will COLLECT T-CELLS!!! I will come back to Tucson and then return to CA September 7 for 3 days of chemo, then infuse on September 14 (new Birthday… hey KP, we’ll get to celebrate our birthdays together!!) KP is my awesome brother-in-law, Kevin Pruitt 🙂
When they told me they were going to take out my port, it really hit me that this was happening. I have had this port now for 10 months, it’s been accessed so many times and is a representation of all the drugs they have pumped into my body. To think that I won’t need it almost brings tears to my eyes because if all goes according to plan, I will only have to go through chemo one more round and then hopefully never again. I think back on this past year and it’s just been a constant cycle of chemo, down week, recover week, and just when I am feeling better again, I go do it all over. And this last round I can finally tell that my once strong body, is not strong anymore. It is taking a long time for my counts to recover, I am two weeks out and my hemoglobin is still 7.9 (normal range is 12-15) which makes me tired…all the time.
The timing of this trial couldn’t be more perfect, except for the fact that we’ll unfortunately miss the Solar eclipse on Monday because I will be in the hospital that day. But I will gladly miss the eclipse as a trade for a cure to this disease.
On another note, as we have been “waiting” for these results two very cool things happened. Last Thursday a man came and delivered this beautiful bouquet of flowers with a box that had two “nothing bundt cakes” in it… now if you’ve never had a “nothing bundt cake” I have to tell you that you are missing out big time. You should definitely find the closest one to you and get one… no special occasion necessary in my opinion. But if that wasn’t enough kindness, inside the box with the cakes, was a check for $5000! We were blown away and I am still racking my brain as to who it was. My mom was here (I had taken Trinity to dance) and said the man just said that it was from a couple of families in the neighborhood, and his name was Rick. The crazy thing is that my chemo brain cannot recall a Rick that I know from the neighborhood, but if by chance the friends that blessed us with this gift are reading this, please know that our hearts are touched beyond imagination for your sweet and generous gift.
I also saw postings of a sea of HOPE 4 KAY shirts at a Texas Rangers baseball game over the weekend. What another awesome display of support from my Texas friends and family… Ya’ll are the bomb!!!
I don’t know what I’ve done in my life to deserve this kind of love, support, and encouragement. But I give God the glory for orchestrating this very special story that I can share with others. Great things happen when people come together in love. I am more fired up to defeat this cancer because of all those behind me. Thank you!
I was a feeling a little discouraged yesterday because I was still running fevers and my lymphocyte count was 100. After hearing the good news about the PET scan, I asked Dr. Miklos about whether the fevers were going to be a problem as well as the lymphocyte count (given that we are collecting T cells in a week). He said that having signs of infection (fever) would keep us from collecting and lymphocytes needed to be >100. It is frustrating to be so close to all the stars aligning and now this???
But today our sweet daughter Kaitlyn texts me this verse of the day:
“being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6
And it reminded me that God will carry us through to the end. He has taken us this far hasn’t He?
And so I am telling this cancer thing, “You got another thing comin’!” And reminisce for a moment back to my middle school years when I was a Judas Priest heavy metal fan… I know, I know, funny huh?
I will keep moving toward the finish line and so happy that God has opened this door for me. Please be praying that my body will gain strength to fight off these low grade fevers, and prepare for the road ahead.
Onward and Upward!
Kay
Kay Blackburn 
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