Wednesday, July 29, 2009

So sorry to be gone for so long. Lots to do and lots has been happening...Where to start. Bo did well with his first round of chemo. If you remember there are 3 weeks between each session. So right before his second round we decided to go see my family in Kansas. Note that this was planned a while ago, but we had things change medically so I never purchased the tickets until it was a for sure go ahead. Well we just decided to go for it.
With that said, the 5 Morgan kids (and spouses) planned a surprise wedding anniversary party for our parents 40th. I have to say we were so proud of ourselves and our parents friends for keeping it a secret. We had to tell my dad "something" was planned, but we kept our mom in the dark and boy was she surprised! A big thank you to all the family and friends that showed up to help us celebrate, it will be one of those for the memories.
I did get to see a few friends while back home, unfortunately under unfortunate circumstances. A friend of mine, Jessica, her mom Joy passed away after battling cancer for 4 years. She was an amazing woman that knew the secret on how to live life, always to the fullest. She will be missed. But her passing allowed me to see some of the sweetest ladies I know. I do think they all shrunk, don't get me wrong ladies, you were not the tallest in school, but putting you all together with me, makes Christi one big giant. Anyway, it was good to see everyone, we need to get on planning a trip with all the ladies together.
Also in the news, tomorrow I will be an aunt again, Brady Morgan should be born via c-section, so prayers out to Curtis, Erin and Ryan.
Back to Bo's health, we made it back on Sunday for our second round of chemo on Monday. Bo appears to be doing well, it typically takes a couple days for the chemo to hit, but for now, we are just fatigued. Let's hope and pray it stays that way. We will visit with Dr. Crawford on August 18th for scans and treatment plan, so mark your calendars that will be a big day. Until then, we play and we play hard.
Love to All
Christi, Bo and Addi

Friday, July 10, 2009

Just a quick update to say thank you to everyone for their thoughts and well wishes. Bo is a little fatigued with the chemo, but they do say the rest of the side effects might come about 5-7 days after, so the first of next week. We hope to be out and about in a short while.
See you all soon
Love to All
Bo, Christi and Addi

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Hello to All and sorry for the delay in posting. Our journey has taken, yet another path. As many of you know, Bo has not been feeling well. He has been battling gout-like symptoms and not feeling like himself. Last week we finally made it up to Duke to talk with Dr. Palmer, our transplant doctor and look at some of our meds. He didn't seem overly surprised about Bo's "gout" it appears that the anti rejection meds have been known to cause problems. He has increased some of his other meds to hopefully elevate the swelling and pain. In the meantime we ran extensive tests on his joints, all came back clear. And we also performed a CT scan to check Bo's lungs. Bo's lungs are looking good, but this is where our path changed. When you perform the CT scan it is upper abdominal that shows all organs above the waist. Here comes the tough part, the doctors have found spots on Bo's liver and spine (bones)
Deep breath everyone, In and out....in and out...
It appears Bo has cancer on his liver and spine. At this time we are unsure if it the same cancer mutating and spreading or a different cancer due to the immune suppressants. Today we went up to have a PET scan and brain MRI. It appears to confirm what they "accidentally" found on the CT that there is cancer (nothing will be 100% until the biopsy is done, but we are pretty confidant this is cancer) Good news, he appears to only have it on his liver and spine. Since it was found accidentally they were afraid it might be elsewhere. Another bit of good news is that the spot on the brain appears unchanged...we are hoping that means no cancer there just some abnormality from everything he went through with the transplant.
I know this is a lot to swallow and trust me there are not 3 people (Bo, Addi and myself - along with family) that did not want to ever share this news with you, nor so quickly, but do know we are strong and fighting. After we spoke with the doctors they immediately started Bo on chemo, today to be exact. He is trying the last chemo he took that he responded to positively before transplant. We are optimistic that he will react in the same way. We will do this again in 3 weeks and then at 6 weeks perform another CT scan to see how he is reacting. While this continues Dr. Crawford is setting up for a biopsy and getting him established with Dr. Potti in charge of Duke's Genomic project. (I could write a novel on this, but in a nutshell they take the biopsy, study it and create a treatment plan specific to your DNA and Cancer. This takes a couple weeks to do, so in the meantime chemo)
I know this is a complete and utter shock to all. We have had a couple days to get over the initial shock, and I am always happier with a plan. As you can see Dr. Crawford and Susan are on it. We have options. As I have told many of you, "we are not "there'."
Please understand we do not have all the answers, more tests will be done and we will continue to work with our transplant doctor and oncologist together. We have been riding waves of emotions and are truly sorry to all that support and love us that this cannot ever be simple. But do know, we want you to fight with us, pray with us, hope with us and believe that We will all overcome.
Love to All
Christi, Bo and Addi
PS We would call everyone of you individually, but right now we are just holding Addi dear to us and enjoying life...