Update...

So the past couple of days have been a busy roller coaster ride to put it best. Yesterday, Derrick had to be placed on a ventilator for various reasons. They had planned to drain his left lung, which is almost completely filled with fluid, but they couldn't. The fluid in his lungs really made his breathing labored. Also, his liver isn't processing out the medications like it should, so it was causing him to be confused. Also, yesterday they did an ultrasound on his abdomen, because he was having a lot of different symptoms. The ultrasound showed that he had bleeding in his abdomen at several different places and bleeding in his colon. They can't definitively pinpoint where the bleeding is coming from, but it is likely due to his low platelet count and complications caused by the chemotherapy. Today they gave him this drug called factor 7, which is something we all have naturally in our bodies, but Derrick is currently deficient. Factor 7 helps with clotting, so they are hoping this will stop the bleeding internally. As soon as they get a handle on the bleeding, they are hoping to place a chest tube in Derrick to remove the fluid. The next step after that is that if this helps his breathing is to remove the ventilator and wake him up. He is currently sedated and resting comfortably. He gets platelet transfusions every 6 hours to also help with his clotting. Also in the works is his next bone marrow transplant which is scheduled to occur before December 16th. The chemotherapy that he had totally wiped out his immune system and his white cell count, which is currently at 0. At this point we are just going hour by hour, minute by minute, as things can change so quickly. Please keep Derrick in your prayers. We are still praying and believing in a complete healing for Derrick.

- Mindy

A Day of Thanks

Hope everybody had a joyous Thanksgiving today spent with people you love and care about. We are thankful that the 5 of us were able to be together today in NYC. My parents and I were able to choose between Thanksgiving dinner at the hospital and the Ronald McDonald House, both of which were a pleasant experience. Mindy is waiting to have her turkey until she can share it with her husband. Derrick has had a few rough days but continues to fight and make progress. Today he watched the parade and a little bit of football. Yesterday he had some fluid removed from his lung after the doctors noticed that his breathing was disrupted as a result of the fluid. Today Derrick started 24 hr dialysis in hopes to remove a lot of the fluids and toxins from his body. We're hoping that this will result in Derrick feeling a little bit more comfortable and an overall improvement of his kidney function. Thanks for the continuous support and we just ask that Derrick continues to be in your prayers.

p.s. How bout them E-A-G-L-E-S????

-Marcy

Update from the Ronald McDonald House...

Ok... This is Mindy... We haven't updated in awhile so I will try to catch everyone up the best I can. It has been a busy couple of days. The chemotherapy that Derrick was being given was in the pediatric unit, because the pediatric leukemia doctor has a new chemo regime that Derrick's transplant doctor thought would be good. We had some up and down days with the chemo. At first his counts came down, then they went back up, so that was a little scary. The chemo regime consists of four different types of chemotherapy given on different days. Once he got the strongest chemo his counts have dropped drastically from 180,000 to 3, 900. This was good and bad. The chemo was so strong that it damaged Derrick's kidneys and he is retaining a lot of fluid. He came into the hospital weighing 182, today he weighed in at 215 ( all fluid). His stomach is really bloated, in fact today he told me he thought his stomach might actually pop. Today, they decided that kidney dialysis would be beneficial in order to clean his blood and get rid of the toxins in his body that his kidneys aren't processing out. With today's dialysis they took out 5.7 pounds of fluid. They have to remove the fluid slowly, not all at once. Yesterday, Derrick also had to get a catheter put in to help him drain his bladder. He will get dialysis again tomorrow and they will up the amount of fluid they will try to take out. Derrick has just been really uncomfortable because of all the fluid and not being able to move too much because he currently has four different types of catheters. When we left tonight he was much more comfortable. The hardest part is that since he is in the ICU I can't stay overnight with him. In fact I have to leave by 8. Since Derrick has been sick, I have barely been away from him for a couple of minutes, let alone nights. This is really hard on both of us. Since I can't stay overnight, Marcy, Jim, Donna, and I are staying at the Ronald McDonald house. Please continue to pray for Derrick that his body, mind, and spirit will be strong. Also pray that the chemo will completely wipe out all the bad cells in his blood and bone marrow. It is also really important that he stay infection free. Derrick has been so incredibly strong throughout the past couple of days that we are all so proud of him. We did get some good news that the donor has decided to donate again! This will make the transplant process less complicated. Based on the scripture that says "where two or more agree, I am there in the midst" I thought it would be nice that whoever would like to take a minute or two tomorrow at 6:00 could say a prayer for Derrick. We appreciate your constant love, support, and prayers.

Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you. So we say with confidence, The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
Hebrews 13: 5-6

Second Day in the hospital...

Just checking in from Memorial Sloan Kettering... Today was mostly spent resting and recovering from a busy couple of days. Derrick's white blood cells started to come down a little today which was a good sign. We give thanks and praise to God for that! We are just praying that he continues to respond to the treatment. We are also praying that this donor gets lined up to donate again, or we get a better donor, whichever is better ( God knows!). Our amazing photographer, Greta and her husband Mike, set up a website with our wedding pictures on it, so by popular request, I thought I'd give you the link. The pictures help to capture the most magical perfect day of both mine and my husband's (hehe..I had to say that!) lives so far. Derrick and I cried pretty much the whole time, but they were definately tears of joy. I will never forget the first time I saw Derrick as I walked down the aisle, he was absolutely gorgeous. We wished everyone could have been there, but you all were definately in our hearts. We absolutely can not thank everyone enough for the time and effort put into a wedding five days in advance! Hope everyone enjoys the pictures. We love you all, and thank you all for your continued prayers!
God Bless,
Mindy

http://www.derrickandmindy.com/

http://picasaweb.google.com/dbld88/TheBestNov17Ever?authkey=KHSgaVqB0es#

The Day After.....

Hi! Donna here, just wanted to update everyone on Derrick's current status. Before I do that, I just want to share with you all how truly awesome our day was yesterday, November 17, the day my son married his angel on earth. The ceremony and reception were held at Shade Mountain Winery in Middleberg and went off almost without a hitch (other than the florist going to the wrong place) everything was perfect. This was amazing considering that Derrick and Mindy only decided on Wed. that they wanted to be married on Monday. Thanks to the hard and selfless work of Barb and Michelle (Mindy's mom and sister) and Mindy's friend, Casie (sorry if I spelled that incorrectly) the wedding fulfilled Mindy's dreams and everyone present felt like they were part of a very special love story that culminated in the marriage of two people who have lived the term "true love". Thank you Derrick and Mindy for allowing all of us to share your "special day" with you.

Today, Derrick and Mindy and Jim headed back to NYC to find out what the next steps will be in Derrick's treatment. When they arrived at MSK, Derrick had his blood taken, had some CAT scans, and a breathing treatment. The results of his blood tests indicated that Derrick's white blood count was extremely high and he needed to be admitted to the hospital and begin treatment immediately to try to get that count down. His doctor starting giving him fluids which should help bring the count down and also started him on a new chemotherapy drug which they're hoping will work to kill the leukemia cells. The doctor told him that he will most likely be in the hospital for the next 4 weeks or so. Please continue to keep all of us in your prayers as this is a very critical time for Derrick.

God will never let you sink under your circumstances. He always provides a safety net, and His love always encircles. - Barbara Jackson

A time when you can't help but ask why....

Sorry for not posting for a few days, and I wish I could say everything is great and I was just being lazy but unfortunately that is not the case. We found out on Wednesday that my cancer, leukemia is back in my body. I know most of you when you read that last sentence will ask the same questions as me, why, how. So this means that I will have to start chemo next week to get my cancer back into remission and then most likely we will try a second transplant and this time instead of having a T-Cell depleted one, I will have a conventional transplant which will cause graft vs host disease but will kill off the leukemia cells as well. Mindy and I have decided to get married TOMORROW. I never thought people could pull off a wedding in 5 days but I know ours is going to be awesome. Since we are going to have to go through and down this long road again Mindy and I thought it only be fitting if we do it as husband and wife. Personally I was totally excited when we brought up the idea because I have been waiting forever to marry this amazing angel of mine. It is the night before my wedding right now so I'm going to keep this short, please keep me in your prayers and pray that the chemo regime they put me on next week gets my cancer into remission and that we have success with the donor again and a good second transplant. Tuesday I will see my doctor again and learn what the game plan will be. We have finished asking why and we have turned our lives over to the Lord, our lives are in his hands now, and when you think about it they have always been. I can't believe I'm getting married tomorrow, I love my future bride to be so much and I can not wait to call her my wife, tomorrow in the mist of everything else I am dealing with I will be able to say with absolute certainty I am the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I love you Mindy, you are my everything.

Update...

Hey! It's Mindy, Derrick is sleeping, which is great, because sometimes his leg bothers him so much it interrupts his sleep. I just wanted to give a quick update and let everyone know that the nurse called yesterday with the results from his MRI. She said that it pretty much confirms what they previously thought that it is a small tumor on his nerve and that this type of tumor is usually benign. She said that it will be removed. Today we are meeting with the orthopedic surgeon to discuss the surgery, and he will probably give us more details about the tumor. Please pray that we have a great appointment and that the tumor is benign. Thanks! In other news Derrick is still recovering emotionally from both Penn State and the Eagle's losses this weekend. Have a good day!

Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and healing shall spring up quickly.
Isaiah 58:8


Whatever you ask for in Prayer with faith you will receive.
Matthew 21:22

Pics

Day +106

My spinal tap on Tuesday went well, I was planning or I should say anticipating getting sick from it but thankfully I didn't, which was obviously very cool. I picked up a prescription for oxycodone on Tuesday because I am having more pain now in my leg behind my knee and in my foot. I had my MRI today but I probably won't have any of the results until Tuesday when we meet with Dr. Bollin an orthopedic surgeon. We are just praying that the tumor is not cancerous and can be removed.
Mindy and I are finding ourselves bored here at the Hope Lodge, I mean don't get us wrong, we are truly grateful but after being back home for a few days it's hard to come back to NYC and be in a room where we don't have anything. I don't eat as well when we are here either, I attribute that to the fact that I have to mask and glove up to walk down to the kitchen to make anything. As opposed to our apartment where I can just get up and walk into the kitchen, not to mention we have the cupboards stuffed with food and here it's just a day to day kinda thing. Today I had oatmeal for breakfast, skipped lunch because of my MRI which we were gone from 2 till 6. Then I had a digourno pizza for dinner, then a little snack of lucky charms.
We are going to be here at the Hope Lodge for a few more days now, I have my meeting on Tuesday and pending the results of my MRI and what the doctor wants to do I may have surgery sometime shortly after that, so at this point we are just hoping to be home by Thanksgiving so we can both chow down on some of our mama and memaw's famous home cooking.
I had two more finger nails fall off today, they really don't bother me as much now that I keep band aids on them so they don't get caught on anything. More and more hair is starting to grow on my head and the more it comes in the more I am starting to think my best days as a blonde could be gone. That really is the least of my cares, God has given me a second chance at life and I am lucky enough to have any hair at all. (Right Dad)
I through up some random pics of Halloween, I was a doctor and Mindy was Pippy Longstocking. I also put up a picture of me along the highway on our drive back to the bus station on Monday when part of my car was dragging on the road, Mindy and I had a good long laugh, something about your first car though, I just can't see myself ever parting ways from her. (Yeah its a her and her name is betsy). There is one of my best friend Michael from the other weekend Mindy and I went to visit him before the Phillies game, he cracks me up, he just got this new tent for his upcoming hunting trip and was setting it up in the house.
Congratulations to Marcy and the Ohio Bobcats on winning their first game in the MAC tournament today 7-0, 3 of which were knocked in by my favorite sister.


Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see
Herbrews 11:1

Day +103

Back in NYC. Today we went to the hospital to have labs drawn, I didn't get the results back today though. Tomorrow I have a spinal tap, which I'm not looking forward to, last time I was sick the whole next day. My leg is still bothering me, it is the worst at night, we keep praying that it is nothing major. I have an MRI on Thursday and then I am seeing an orthopedic surgeon next Tuesday. It's looking like we will be in NYC for at least 2 and a half more weeks, now we are just hoping to be home by Thanksgiving. We are looking on the bright side, not only are we so thankful that we are here and that the Lord has blessed us and seen us through many deep waters, but at least this way were will be in one place for some time instead of running around all the time. My first two fingernails fell off this past weekend, and now I have nice new nails. I can't believe the BCS this week, PSU #3 I mean come on, this team has National Championship written all over it.

Please keep my in your prayers and pray that the tumor in my leg is nothing serious and everything goes well tomorrow with my spinal tap. Also please take time to give praise to the Lord for all that he has done and provided not only in my life but in yours. A lot of time we turn to the Lord and ask for prayer during tough times, but we need to remember all that we have to be thankful for, from living in this wonderful nation, to our health.