Bratwurst anyone?

It will be two weeks tomorrow that Dad received his infusion. He is doing as good as can be expected. He is unable to keep much of anything on his stomach; his head feels like someone is trying to drill a steel rod through it and the hospital walls seem to be closing in on him. Yep, as good as can be expected.  

The great news is that today’s blood tests revealed that engraftment has begun.

Long story short…it’s working. Short story long…the donor stem cells have traveled to the bone marrow and have begun to produce new blood cells.  New healthy, cancer free, blood cells.

We won’t be told the identity of Dad’s donor until a year after the transplant. However, they did tell Dad that the t-cells came from Germany. If he starts to develop a strong desire for Bratwurst I will happily oblige him with a full plate.

A letter of thanks...

As I head into this next transplant I wanted to take a moment to say thank you.  Thank you for all the support, cards, prayers and well wishes.  I am very blessed to have the support that I do and know that I couldn’t have made it through all this without you.

It was great to see my Worldwide Distributors family at the last show.  Gus and Mark help keep me up to date with news from the board and keep me going with encouraging phone calls.  Deb and Mark were a tremendous help supporting me in my trip to the Drs. in Washington.  Nancy Barta is a dear angel with weekly cards of encouragement.  Jon, Steve, Sue, Donna, Kathy and Karen it was great to see you along with all the member stores.  All the “good to see you”, pats on the back and supportive hugs meant the world to me.  I count myself lucky to have you all in my life. 

Thank you; (please excuse my “chemo brain” for any I forget)

Steve H., Harvey and all in my Wednesday night group.

Larry C. and Jerry M. for the e-mails, letters, offers to help and words of encouragement. 

Wynn for the weekly check ups.

My church family and wonderful neighbors.

My Smith and Edwards family for all that you have done to keep the store going.  You have made me proud.

My siblings Sherma, Ruthann and Steve for all your support and willingness to be tested for stem cell donation.  Your unselfish support is appreciated. 

Aunt Georgia and Dave for the laughs, cartoons and family updates.  Your humor and support always seems to come at just the right moment.

To Misti and Kyle for all the time she puts into updating the blog when she doesn’t even have time for herself and for Kwade, Kolt and Kwincee.

Craig and Mikka for putting in extra hours at the store and for my beautiful Ari.

Dustin and Julee for managing the ranch and for Brock, Trey and Tate.

And, last but not least, thank you to Paula who keeps everything and everyone going.  She has worn her car and herself out taking me back and forth to appointments.  She is my greatest blessing.

You are all greatly loved.

Sincerely, Jim


My thoughts and prayers are with my friends Wayne and Wynn who are dealing with their own medical issues. We will get through this.

Round 2...

A donor has been found, contacted and is scheduled to donate.  Dad will start his second t-cell replacement therapy this Thursday, May 10^th.  The stem cell infusion will begin the following Thursday…day 0 once again. 

Dad and mom have spent the better part of the last couple weeks hanging out at The Huntsman while Dad was, once again, put through a barrage of tests. They received some great news at his last appointment with his Oncologist.

PET scan was clear.  It appears that the “hot spots” that were present at the last scan were no longer visible.  The back poke indicated that cancer was still present but was beginning to have the appearance of Leukemia.  I am not sure what this means but do know that the Drs. said that this does happen and they are very confident that the planned therapy is the next step that needs to be taken.

Dad is doing great.  He has all his beautiful black hair back and seems to be feeling pretty good.  Because he has already been through this once before he knows what to expect and knows that it is going to be a rough few months, to say the least.  He also knows that after this treatment he will be cancer free.

As he prepares to start this next chapter please don’t let your praying knees get lazy.  He needs you more than ever.  And, while you are at say an extra prayer of thanks and blessings to the amazing donor that is going to be responsible for saving Dads life.  I can’t begin to express in words what this incredible person means to us.  There are angels among us.