Day +6 to Day +8

                 

              Sorry I didn't post yesterday! Yesterday, Monday, was Day +8!
                                     We met with Dr. Ruiz Sr. at the clinic!

I was given my lab results! I have good news!
He said I went from a WBC of 200, to a WBC of 9,600!!! I'm out of neutropenia!
Yay😍!!!
He said that I did well and that the stem cell transplant was successful! He asked if I have noticed any changes yet, and I said I hadn't. He told me that I may notice changes in 9-12 months if I'm going to. Keep praying that I'll see changes!

He said I'm cleared to have the Rituxumab infusion, which  I'll have on Wednesday, pending 2 in our group are out of neutropenia! 2 of us were good to go!!

So, I'm out of neutropenia, which means I can go out without a mask, but not in crowded areas. I must wear a mask on the plane and if I'm around sick people.
I have to be careful around Gus, my Goldendoodle!🐕🐕 He can't lay in bed with us or me. He's going to have a hard time understanding this!!

I can't swim in a pool or a lake! Sorry you all in my swimming class! I'll come for coffee!☕ I still must be careful what I eat, Only clean food. No salads or fresh fruit and vegetables. They must be cooked! That's going to be hard for me because I love salads🥗 I can have fruit/vegetables with a hard skin!🍉🍌🍍🥑 I'll be eating a lot of watermelon and cantaloupe!

I continue to lose my hair!😕 I'm unsure  of when to shave it!! It's so hard! I'll let you know when I'll do it!!

I'm feeling pretty good, but last night I had a headache?? Not sure if it was from the Filgrastim injection?? I also had some bone pain. Luckily, I'm done with the injections!!

We are out of isolation, so we may get out and do some sightseeing today!
I'm so thankful to be done with the worst of it!! Thank you for all of your prayers, love, and concern!!

I opened a card with this verse:

"Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9

I know that God has been with me through it all! To Him be the glory!🙏

Thanks Amy for this encouragement and truth!!
I can't believe we come home in 4 days!!

Love you all for being with me in thoughts and prayers!👆

We'll see you soon! We love and miss you Mom and Dad, Alex, Zach, Meghan, and Eva💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

Much love,
Kim & Dave

Isolation and Mom's Birthday&Mother's Day!

                                                 Day +3 to Day +5

Today is Day +5. We remain in isolation😷😷😷 It's Friday today!! I can't believe we come home in a little over a week! Not too much happening. We may go out for a little walk around the neighborhood! We have to wear masks, though😷😷😷
We skyped Alex and Gus last night🐕🐕I miss them so much! I'm getting homesick!
Today we may try and Skype Zach, Meghan, and Eva!

I feel good!! More strands of hair continue to fall out! I'm trying to prepare myself for this! Losing your hair is not the end of the world! Luckily, hair grows back! Besides, I have a lot of cute hats from my friends, that I can wear!😀

I've been eating the neutropenic food! Also, Dave has been cooking things I can eat! It's like emergency food from the Wise Company. Just add hot water! They're not too bad. They don't want you eating anything that may give you an infection or make you sick!

 I've been praying and contemplating how MS has changed my life! I really hope and pray that the MS symptoms will improve!

 A nurse or doctor comes everyday to monitor my vitals, check to see how I'm doing, and to give a Filgrastim injection. This will help my neutropenia recover faster!

                            The nurse giving me an injection! She's really nice!!

                        It was Mother's Mexican Day on May 10th🌹🌸💐🌼🌺🌷🇨🇮

It was my beautiful Mom's Birthday on May 3rd! I missed the party they had for her.
I wish I could've been there! I miss and love her so much!! Happy Birthday Momma!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      My beautiful Mom and sister, Melanie!!

My aunt LaVonne and mom(sisters)!

I will also miss Mother's Day which is May 14th. We'll have to celebrate it when we get home!!

                 My beautiful sister and Maddie, her gorgeous daughter!!

Hope you'll have a great day! The cards and Bible verses have been so encouraging!!
It helps just knowing you are praying and that you care💕💕 I've opened a card everyday! Thank you for your love💕

My verse today: In the day when I cried out, You answered me. And made me bold with STRENGTH in my soul. Psalm 138:3.
Thanks Tracy!!

Isolation! 7-10 days!

                                               Day +2

We are in isolation starting yesterday. I now must eat a neutropenic, clean diet, as I'm at greater risk for infection. Xavier brought my bucket of food yesterday. I'll eat it. It's not too bad. Basically, you just add hot water to the meals! Dave can also cook if he makes proper things.

                                           Xavier delivering the bucket of food!!

Today the doctors made house calls to take our vitals, draw our blood, and to give another Filgrastim injection. We also get to go to the clinic to have a hematology consult. We met with the doctors, and found out our lab results.🏥

I'm in neutropenia!! They said all of my numbers are going down! My WBC count I think was 3,200. My platelets are low. This is to be expected! They will continue to go down.

We will have another blood draw and go to the clinic on Thursday. In the meantime, we're in isolation. We can go outside, but must wear masks and avoid crowded areas!

We're just reading, sleeping, watching movies, writing on the computer. We do have a little deck off our living room which has spectacular views and sunsets with the volcano🌋

I'm thankful that we only have to drink 2 liters per day, instead of 3! That means I'm not up every hour peeing! Haha! These things become important! Like a good night's sleep!😴

The good news is that I feel good, I have a good appetite, and I haven't lost my hair yet!! 

Love you mom and dad!

Day 0!! My Stem Cell Birthday! May 7th, 2017!

                                            Day 0!!

Sorry I didn't post yesterday, Day 0,  my stem cell birthday!!
Yesterday was an emotional, great day! Seeing my 309 million stem cells infused back into my body, gives me hope  that my MS has stopped progressing!!

I have so many people to thank from Clinica Ruiz! Their care and compassion has been outstanding!
The doctors, nurses, receptionists, all have taken such great care of us!🎉

The MOSC(Medical Outpatient Services Company) Xavier, in particular, has gone above and beyond his job for us!! He has been our driver,  picking us up at the airport, making sure we get to the Clinic on time,  transportation to the hospital for our PICC line placement, and for our consultations with neurologist/cardiologist, a  handyman, our interpreter, tour guide, and most of all our friend!! He is a truly compassionate, nice guy!! We couldn't have done this without him!! We love you Xavier💕

Our maid, Sina, who comes to our apartment almost everyday! She has done a superb job keeping our apartment so nice and clean! I want to take her home with me!!😀

I thank all of the patients here whom have gone through this whole experience with us! They have become like family, and have been a great support! We will be forever connected!
May 7th, 2017, the 4 of us will share our new birthday!! From the UK, Norway, Canada, and USA!

A huge thank you to all of our carers!! They do so much, shopping, cooking, making sure we take our meds, and just a great support!! Thank you Dave, the best hubby, carer anyone could have! I love you😘

And, all of you who have loved, supported, encouraged, and prayed for us! We are so thankful!!

Thank you to our families who have always been here for us! We love you so much!! 💕

                                 May 7th, 2017, my new stem cell birthday!

Our group, the fabulous 4, having our celebration, with a birthday card, cupcakes, and an awesome t-shirt given to us by the Clinica Ruiz!!

Hopefully my new immune system will have stopped the progression of MS, and I will regain some function!! C'mon stem cells!!

I am now in isolation for 7-10 days! I love and miss you all!!

Alex, Zach, Meghan, Eva, and Gus, we love you and miss you!😘
Alex, thanks for taking care of Gus! I know he loves you!🐕

Mom and Dad I think about you everyday! Only 2 more weeks! We love you so much and am praying that you are well! We miss you and will try and call you again!
Kim and Dave💕💕

Last Chemotherapy Day!

                                          Day -1

I was ready for this day! Our final day of chemotherapy! Yay!! I've been doing very well with the chemotherapy, but you can always get sick!! I'm really tired of drinking and peeing! But, if it helps, I'll do it!

 Thank you God, I breezed through the 5 hour chemo session! I'm so thankful!!
They want you drinking 3 liters per day,which is harder by the end. It helps with flushing out the chemo toxins. So I tried! Also, along with the anti-nausea meds given in your IV, it helped with not being nauseated!I had a slight headache tonight, but I'm not sick!! I hope I sleep better tonight!

       This morning we woke up to the volcano with snow on the top of it! So pretty!! It rained last night, so that's maybe why??

       This was our group yesterday getting our stem cells harvested! The machines are very complicated! The doctors monitor them and you very closely!

                            My stem cells being harvested!
                                   309 million baby!!

We all had 7x the amount that was needed for our body weight! They need 1 million per kg.

So today was a great day!! I feel good, unlike some who have been so sick. My heart goes out to them! The nurse in me wants to help them to feel better!
But, Dr. Ruiz was right there helping to make things better! Bless him! He is so kind and compassionate! He made it happen!

                                                 Dr. Ruiz checking on everyone!

The staff have been excellent! Everyone! We couldn't ask for a better team looking after us! I'm very grateful!!

                 Dr. Priesca will be doing our stem cell transplant tomorrow!!

I'm just going to leave you with a couple of quotes:

So true!! Tomorrow is Day 0 when we get our stem cells back!! It will be our stem cell birthday!! I'll try and post tomorrow!!
Good night!
Love,
Kim💕

Day. Of Stem Cell Harvest!! Also 5 hours of Chemo!

                                    Day -2

Today is a big day! My stem cells are being harvested as I write this! My pretest showed approximately 45 million stem cells. I need 1 million per kg, I weigh 45 kg, but I will probably get more! 45 million is enough according to my body weight, but I'm praying for more!

Being hooked up to this apharesis machine is weird! Seeing you blood leaving your body and then seeing your blood cells being collected into a bag! We can not leave to go to the bathroom. Everyone had to wear or diapers. Fun times !!! No modesty here !!

       This is the apharesis room. Our carers are not allowed in here to be with us !!

                                       Here are my stem cells being collected !!

Doctor Arguelles Ruiz (the big guy) just checked in with us to see how we were doing! He is so kind!!

(Yesterday we got our PICC lines put in at the
Puebla Hospital).
This is for my nurse friends. They made a very big deal of it! Things we did right at the bedside in SICU!! We were admitted to the hospital. I went first! We had a beautiful room! I was taken to the OR, and given an IV.
I don't know what anesthesia was given, but it was gooood!! I didn't feel a thing,! Just slept right through it! Also doctor Lovee who I've named doctor D, or doctor delicious was in the OR with me😍😍 He is so cute! Young enough to be my son! Lol! We've had fun amongst ourselves and with the doctors!!
We have had a lot of good laughs😀 We have to try and make it fun😀

                                         This was after getting  my PICC line!!
                                         You have to eat a liquid diet before going home!

I just finished my stem cell collection !! Yay !!!
We just found out our numbers ...

309 million stem cells !!!! Woohoo😀😀😀😀!


Now onto 5 hours of chemo! Yay. I think ??

The calm before the storm!

                                      Day -6 to Day -4

                                         Me and Javier! Pretty flowers!!

Monday was Mexican Labor Day  We didn't do much as most things were closed for the holiday! We skyped with Zach, Meghan, and Eva!! I miss them!! Just getting my 2x/day Filgrastim shots! It's nice that the doctors make house calls!
The shots don't hurt, and I don't have any bone pain yet!:-)

Tuesday Dave walked to the bank. Let's just say it has been a fiasco to get pesos. Our credit card company, Citi Bank , didn't know what they were doing. Dave just kept going around with them on the phone, with them giving him many different stories! Ugh!!! They would not help us,
Luckily we had cash and Javier took us to get pesos.
I felt good today! Clinica Ruiz gifted us with an hour long massage! I went for mine today! It was heavenly, glorious, and so relaxing!! Regina truly has healing hands!
They have treated us so great! I'm so thankful!

Wednesday, Javier took us to Cholula, a historic district in town. A historic Catholic Church built over an Aztecs site. It was high up, so Sarah and I stayed down. Dave and Sarah's mom went to the top! It was a steep climb!! We then went to a fancy restaurant for lunch with authentic Mexican food. It was really good!
I was feeling pretty good! I did have some bone pain in my back and legs, due to the Filgrastim injections. Hopefully the pain means it's working!

                                              The Catholic  Church at Cholula

Today was our last calm day of freedom! I'm so glad we could get out sightseeing!
Puebla is such a beautiful city with beautiful people and nice, warm weather!!

Tomorrow, Thursday, Day -3 will be a long day! We will get our Central PICC line. We have to be at the hospital at 8:00. Fasting for 8 hours.

Today is my mom's birthday! Happy Birthday Mom! I love you so much!! Love, Kim💕