Day 1 of Tests at Memorial Hospital in NYC

Monday afternoon Derrick and Mindy drove to Kutztown to catch the Bieber bus to NYC for his tests on Tuesday and Wednesday.  They arrived in NYC and walked to the Hope Lodge where they will be staying for 2 nights.  Upon arriving, they were pleasantly surprised at their accommodations.  The room was very nice and bigger than they had anticipated.  The Hope Lodge is located across the street from Madison Square Gardens and they where able to enjoy their dinner on a common patio on the 6th floor and watch all the hustle and bustle of the city below.  Jim left home Tues. morning to catch the bus to NYC for the day.

Yesterday was day 1 of 2 days of testing to determine Derrick's overall condition prior to his stem cell transplant.  After completing several tests, Derrick, Mindy and Jim met with Dr. Pappadopolous, to decide how and when to proceed with the transplant.  It was decided that his transplant will be pushed back until June 16 or June 23, depending on the outcome of a CT scan which will be done later this week or early next week and also the possibility of a better donor.  The CT scan is being done to see if his pneumonia has improved enough to go ahead with the transplant on the 16th or if an additional week might help.  We should know about the donor by next Monday.

We will be having a drop-in for Derrick once we know for sure when he'll be heading off to NYC for his transplant.  Please stay tuned for that information, as we would like to have as many of you who can make it, stop in and extend your best wishes to him before he leaves.