Dave Update-April 25, 2011

Hello family and friends, Dave and my mom left at 3:00 a.m. this morning to Stanford after receiving word that his white blood cells counts were good.  They headed straight to the hospital where they have to do some initial testing to see if they can start the harvesting process.  I spoke with my mom at noon and they just hooked Dave up for harvesting.  Remember, it can take 1-4 days for harvesting.  We are hoping for one day. 

I know this can be complicated to understand the process.  Below is a short explanation of the harvesting process. 

In the stem cell harvesting process blood is removed from the patient's body through the apheresis catheter (that was previously inserted into Dave's chest), circulated through an aspheresis machine and returned to the patient's body. The aspheresis machine separates out the stem cells and retains them in plastic bags. Although all of the patient's blood goes through the aspheresis machine several times in each session. only about one-half cup is inside the machine at one time.  Again, they will freeze Dave's stem cells for the transplant that will occur in May.

I woke up on Easter Sunday feeling pretty blue. The kids were at their dads, I didn't make any plans (other than to go to church) with family, and I knew mom and Dave would be going to Stanford.  Easter is my favorite holiday next to Christmas so I was feeling pretty sorry for myself.  Things turned around after my mom called and said that Dave wanted the kids to come over in the afternoon after they returned from their dads.  He wanted to do a special easter egg hunt for them.  At this point they knew they had to be in Stanford at 7 a.m. on Monday morning, but Dave wanted to wait until 3 a.m. to leave so we could get together.  I'm happy we did because we had the best time!  For all of you that know Dave, you understand that he never does anything "simple" so he planned the best easter egg hunt ever.  I'm going to explain in the pictures below:

This is Dave reading a long list of Easter Egg hunt rules.  Along with candy, eggs had a variety of questions in them that the kids had to answer before getting the prize that belonged to the egg.  He explained to the kids, as they patiently listened in awe of the amount of rules, that they had to bring the question to him and that he would determine if the answer was correct.  He also explained to them that they could not "solicit" answers from others.  I just laughed as I watched their faces knowing that they didn't even know what "solicit" means.  He even had a map drawn out with exactly where he placed each egg so he wouldn't forget.  Mom said he spend a long time out in the yard getting everything perfect for when the kids arrived. 

This is Mason as he listened very carefully to the list of instructions and rules for the easter egg hunt.

Mason reading his question to Granpa Dave.  One of his questions was, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"  His response, "A cop".

For some reason, Eden got all the hard questions like, "What is Christianity?" and "What is the meaning of life?"  I was a proud moma as she answered these questions with confidence.

Dave, Mom, Mason, and Eden (Easter 2011)  I think Mason summed it up best when he said, "This is the best day ever!"

Thank you Dave and mom for making my family have a very special Easter.  I know you weren't feeling well and you both had a lot to do before you left for Stanford, but you still thought about us and making our Easter special.  Another special memory I will file away.  I love you both.  Jeana