Welcome to my Journal .starting
today I am including my counts the legend is as follows W=white cells H=Hemoglobin
p= Platelets. A plus indicates a rise a minus indicates a decrease
04/04/05
Okay, it’s
time I updated my posts. Since my Donor Lymphocyte Infusion, nothing drastic
or noticeable has happened. This means that I more then likely have no Graph
versus Host occurring. That is a good thing, yet it also could mean I have
no Graph versus Leukemia occurring either. That is what we want. So all in
all we’re not sure if it’s working, but we can’t be sure it isn’t
Also, about mid-March I became infected with none other then
Influenza B. Which turned out not to be as bad as I once thought it could be
for someone with my immune system. It started out with some low grade
fevers, which then spiked. I went to the Emergency at Children’s Hospital,
and was poked, prodded, and generally handled like a slab of meat. They
finally decided to keep me overnight for surveillance. Then a test was
performed that involved shooting saline up my nose with a syringe, and then
retrieving it with a suction tube. That test is a Standard Operating
Procedure for moving kids onto ward 3B. The test came back positive for
Influenza B, so I had to go to another ward so as to not infect others like
myself. So long story short I was stuck for half a week in Children’s
Hospital on the new surgery ward.
A
couple days of sleeping in, multiple liters of water and a box of tissues
later, here I am. Cadet’s is going well too. I am currently on the second
string for the Thunderbird Shoot on the 9th, as well as preparing
for our Drill Competition on the 16th. Our next CO’s Parade is
this Wednesday, so I need to polish my uniform and iron my boots. Oh,
wait…you know what I mean. And in late April we are having our Army Cadet
Fitness test! So hopefully I’ll be able to pull off a bronze. Hooah! I
recently got my own copy of the greatest MMORPG (That’s “Massively
Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game” for all of you who are not up to date
on video game lingo) I have ever played. World of Warcraft! That game is so
much fun, and thousands upon thousands play it world wide, including me! So
my friends and I are all on the same server, and questing across Kalimdor
and the Eastern Kingdoms. It’s the perfect way to spend a lazy Saturday
afternoon, night, and morning.
So
basically we are waiting for some sort of sign as to what is happening from
my Donor Lymphocyte Infusion, I have competitions in Cadet’s to attend, and
World of Warcraft is wicked awesome. Oh, not to mention I am waiting for the
new Zelda game to come out…
So until then, I’ll just have to keep you all posted, bye!
03-01-05
Contrary to popular belief, I have not slipped off the face of the earth
into another plane of existence. Or have I? Note to self, research
possibilities of trans-dimensional travel, and likeliness thereof. Okay now
lets recap on what’s happened so far since my latest relapse (yarg), I have
gone into remission, been on maintenance and am now going to have a Donor
Lymphocyte Infusion (DLI) on March 2nd. This will hopefully
trigger some Graph versus Leukemia, and jump start my immune system to fight
any blast cells I have left. I have been off chemotherapy for about a week
now so as to not kill off any of my remaining immune system, so that it can
be ready for the infusion. I am feeling and looking great though.
I just recently joined the Drill Team in my Cadet Core, the 2893 Seaforth
Highlanders. I was promoted to a Corporal last fall, and am the Flag Bearer
of the National Flag for the Flag Party. I am in decent shape too, but not
good enough for any Fitness Levels….yet.
I have also acquired quite the collection of Nintendo consoles. I now own
a Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), a Super Nintendo Entertainment System
(SNES), a Nintendo 64, and a Nintendo Gamecube. What does this mean you
might ask? Some could say Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, but I say it means
I can now play any Nintendo Console game (I have them all!), with the
exception of any Famicom or Super Famicom games (The Japanese version of the
NES and SNES respectively). So now I can play classics games like Final
Fantasy VI or The Legend of Zelda!
So in summary, I am feeling good, things are looking to improve, Cadets
is great, and N1N73ND0 R0X0R5! I will try from now on to post at least once
a month, so until next time (hopefully soon enough), see yah!
Day +32 Hi Ho!
Sorry I haven’t written in a while but I have been settling in to my home
and getting my room up to snuff. I am feeling great and am looking good. My
hands aren’t peeling so much, but there still is a bit of it. Since I have
been home I have also been painting my stegadon. Which is a warhammer model
my class got me a while back. I thank the class also for the disc of
slideshow presentations, I haven’t looked at them all yet, but I soon will.
My taste has improved greatly; I think it might only be the slightest bit
off, if any. It has been beautiful weather lately and I have been able to
enjoy it somewhat. I can’t stay out in the sun too long, but I can go under
this shade thing we have on the deck. The birds in one of our birdhouses are
almost ready to leave the nest. It is quite neat to watch. I still have to
go to the clinic for checkups weekly though, but if all goes well on my next
visit, I might only have to go every two weeks. Fingers crossed! Summer
vacation has started for some, and is around the corner for others, and I
sure hope I can get well enough to catch the last week of camp goodtimes
this year. Just in case you wanted to know, day +50 is on July 13th,
and that magic day, day +100 is on September 1st.
-Taber
06/16/02
Day +23. Broke the record !!!!!! Today came home on a
day pass for Fathers Day. While I was home the Ward phoned and said O K to
stay home for the night. Dad figures he got the best fathers day gift ever.
Have to go in for more Meds tomorrow, but that's it home for a while. Still
have to do weekly follow ups for a time.
06/12/02
Day +19.Hi Y'all!I am feeling better and am eating
more things. I can kind of taste most things. Bacon is chewy and like I said
I can still get some taste out
of it. I seriously can't wait for my taste to return! My A.N.C is still
maintaining at a steady level, but I still need it to double and stay
like that for two days so I can get into stepdown. I am biking daily
too, and will continue to do so as long as my platelets stay above 20.
Although considering they are curently at 68 and are keeping at a
steady level, I should be biking for a while. I am still shedding some
skin here and there, but it doesn't hurt, just a little itchy now and
then. I currently have almost no eyelashes, and my eyebrows are very
thin. My food tube intake level has been increased, because I was
losing weight for a while. But now it should go up. I hear it is
getting hot out there, enjoy the weather!
06/12/02 {W= 1.91 +} {H= 117 +}
{P=104 +} {ANC=1.10 +}
06/11/02 (W= 0.81 +) (H= 108 +) ( P=
68 +) (ANC=0.25 +)
Taber
06/09/02
Day +16 .Sorry I haven't writen in a while, I
have just been sleeping in and
then the rest of my day was kind of packed full. I am receiving some
medicine to help my rashes and the burning sensation on my hands. The
burning is gone, and I am trying to eat a lot more. I have had some of
an egg, some beef noodles, a nutrigrain bar, things like that. I am
going for sausage tomorrow morning. It is day +16 and I finally have a
detectable A.N.C. It is 0.24, which is good! if I can get it to stay at
least 0.50 for two consecutive days I will be able to go into stepdown.
My white cells are higher then the have been this whole time I was in
this room, and my platelets are maintaining at a good level. I will get
on answering the e-mails again too, that too slided along with the
journal entries. I am feeling good, it's just gettin up is the problem.
I just might be able to get into stepdown this week, fingers crossed!
Taber
06/05/2002
Day +12 .Hello. I've been feeling tired
lately and haven't really been eating. I
haven't been on my computer as much as I'd like to but I have put up
this journal. I've been feeling a little queasy but I haven't thrown up
for a while. Hopefully I'll be feeling better soon. I miss you all.
Taber
Well,it finally has hit Taber. Yesterday and
today have been down days.
He has spent most of the time sleeping and just taking it easy. This is
more typical of a BMT patient. We are seeing a few blips in his white
blood cell count so we are assuming engraftment is taking place. Now we
are awaiting signs of acute graft vs host disease (GVHD}. Some actually
is good as the theory is the donors cells can identify leukemic cells
and destroy them. Hoping that tommorrow is a better day.
Simone
06/02/2002
Day +9. Today I am feeling good.
My throat is not as sore as
it used to be, thanks to the pain killers I recieve regularly. I have
been taking advantage of the fact that my throat feels better by
eating. I started with a couple sips of water, then I drank some iced
tea. This was on day +7. Then on day +8 I had a bit of applesauce and
diced peaches. Today I had some appple juice. I am still being fed
through my food tube though. Also today my white blood cell count has
risen a little. I have still been biking when my platelets are high
enough, so I am keeping active. My room is becoming more comfortable,
for I have added a few personal touches. I am all settled in and ready
to get well and get into stepdown. Can't wait till I can go back to
grade 8 and see all my friends again,
Taber.
May 30,2002
Day +6. Hello again. Today is my 6th
day in this room. My throat is still
sore and it hurts to even swallow sips of water. But I am glad that I
got a food tube put in early, so now they put food down the tube. So
that is good. My food tube seems to plug up every now and then, but the
nurses fix it. I am moving around my room less now because I have a
huge pump. It consists of 2 three line pumps, a food tube pump, a
morphine type pump and it even has its own power bar! The reason I have
the morphine stuff is because I need pain killers for my throat. It
distributes a fair amount constantly, and then if I push a button, I
get a little more. I heard that there isn't much school left so I bet
all my classmates are happy. Every morning I have been biking on my
stationary bike. I think my Dad will be posting this. A lady named
Sharon from Childlife came in and gave me some plastercine stuff and a
deck of cards for the duration of my stay. I also got the Guiness Book
of World Records 2002 from her. Maybe I can set a record for the
fastest recovery. Well I miss you guys.
Taber
05/26/02
Day +2. Hi this is Taber. I know I haven't written a
lot lately, but that is because I have been doing homework and getting ready
for countdown. Countdown started on the 16th . This was getting me
ready for the transplant. I had radiation on the last three days of
countdown. one in the morning , the other in the afternoon. I handled it
pretty well. Just maybe a little tired afterwards and that's all. No nausea
which was good. On Friday I went and had my Bone Marrow Transplant. Along
with Morphine and Benadryl. I was pretty out of it and slept right
through. Just a bag of blood products that makes it way to my marrow. Then
on Saturday I got my feeding tube put in. It goes through my nose and into
my stomach. It felt weird for a while. Today I got a bit more used to it,
but not too long before I wrote this entry I threw it up. UGH !!! gross.
Strangely enough I feel better now. My mom has her own MSN account now, if
you can't reach me look for
carpentera@shaw.ca and she can answer for me. I am going to have
another feeding tube put in later today, so wish me luck. I have my own
exercise bike in here and a TV, my laptop, a window, and a calendar. I will
be going on MSN when I am feeling okay and can sit and talk for a while. I'm
starting to make myself at home and hopefully I will be out soon. The record
is 28 days in the room. Well miss you all
Taber
05/25/02
Day +1 Tabers counts have started to drop this
morning, this was expected. Simone was dismayed to find out the TV in the
R.V only gets CBC and on Saturday mornings there is no news ,just kid
cartoons.
05/24/02
Day 0 This is it Taber received his BMT at 6:30 pm
on the 24th it took two hours to infuse into his body. Taber had planned on
going online but prior to the transplant they gave him morphine and some
other drugs to help with adverse reactions. End result was Taber was whacked
out of it and slept till about 10:45pm.he is hoping to go online tomorrow
nite. Use msn messenger add Taber as a contact taberc@shaw.ca
and you should find him. Have to tell you Taber gave the nurses a laugh when
he entered the isolation room and joked hey stop I changed my mind, then
proceeded to send an s.o.s. with the room blinds.
05/23/02
Day -1 Second day of radiation and Taber is still
feeling fine. Our Friends Frankie and Sue mac showed up with the R.V
for us to stay in. it took a short while to hook up but now its just like
home.
05/22/02
Day-2 Taber will be getting his first radiation treatment
at 8:00 am this morning, then a second dose in the afternoon. this is the
same for all three days.Taber is as healthy as can be at this point from
here on in it will probably get worse before it gets better. He is a fighter
though and game for the challenge ahead.
05/21/02
Day -3.This is a day off for Taber ,he is
getting a day pass to go smell the flowers at Queen Elizabeth Park (Bloedel
Conservatory). He is extremely healthy at this point.
05/17/02
over the weekend Taber had some Chemo administered with a
high volume flush. The end result he was off to toilet every hour on the
hour for two days . He is glad that is over.
05/16/02
This is what we call( day -8 ) Taber will be
admitted this afternoon . I have added some pictures from yesterdays clinic
visit on the photo page . he had some chemo added into his spinal column .
Also he had a lung function test.
05/14/02
Well I lied Taber has been busy trying to complete his home school work.
The Schedule for this week is as follows :
Wednesday : Clinic for Chemotherapy and a consult with Dr Davis his
oncologist.
Thursday : Meet Dr Parson the
oncology /radiation Doctor in the morning then admitted to the
ward at Childrens Hospital in the afternoon
Weekend : over the weekend more chemotherapy.
Next week : As far as we can tell Taber will be radiated on Wednesday,
Thursday , Friday .The evening of the 24th he will be given the Bone Marrow
.
05/10/02
Taber has been busy catching up on his homework, so I
haven't pestered him for a journal page. The date for his B.M.T. is now
looking to be May 24th. On the !6 of May we will meet with the radiation
oncologist Dr Parsons to size him up and weigh him for fractionated
radiation therapy. As of yet we do not have dates for the actual treatments
, but they will happen before the B.M.T. At this time Taber is healthy apart
from a cold sore that he is receiving treatment for. He will be going into
treatment as healthy as possible . this is a BONUS !!!!!. Taber will be
writing the next entry for you .
04/29/02
Hello again. I am going into my Bone Marrow Transplant
room on May 23rd. I will be admitted nine days prior. This is
called countdown. I just had a bunch of tests done on me to see how
my body is doing. Sometime in the future they will do the tests again and
see what damage ( If any ) was done to any of my internal organs. My tutor
is coming back tomorrow, and we will figure out an outline of work for me to
follow in order to pass on to grade 8. I have a chance of being on the
Children’s Miracle Network Telethon. I will tell you all when I find out
when I will be on it. I can’t really have visitors right now because I need
to stay as healthy as possible in order to stand a good chance in the
Transplant room. And right now my A.N.C is okay, but not strong enough to go
visiting or have visitors. Why risk getting sick? There are some really cool
movies coming out lately, and I wish I could see them. There’s Spiderman,
Star Wars Episode II attack of the clones, and Harry Potter and the chamber
of secrets as well as Lord of the Rings the two towers are both coming out
around November or December. But for now I just have to rent movies. Oh
well, not the end of the world!
-Taber Carpenter
04/20/02
Hey everyone! Sorry it took soooooo long to write up a journal, it’s just
that I was in the hospital for the past couple of days. I spiked a fever and
was taken in and I stayed for a while because I had really low counts. I had
my thirteenth birthday on Tuesday and for a birthday on the ward, it was
pretty cool. My exit site of my c.v.c is healing good and I have an A.N.C of
0. Meaning when they look at a slide of my blood they don’t see a single
white cell. There are too few of them. But I am getting these injections
called G.C.S.F, into a mini I.V. type port thing in my leg. The I.V thingy
is called and insuflon. Excuse my spelling. I recently got an outbreak
of the herpies. They broke out because my counts were low and I couldn’t
fight them off. The herpies are just like really annoying cankers. But I
will always have them. But when I am weak, like say feverish, I will get
cold sore thingies on my lips. But guess what! My donor for my transplant
doesn’t have herpies. So when I receive some of his marrow, my body should
gain the knowledge how too fight off the herpies. And hopefully the cancer
too! I recently read 2 good books. They were Holes by Louis Sachar and
Silverwing by Kenneth Oppel. They are well written and Holes has won some
awards, as well as Silverwing. They can be for practically all ages so
enjoy!
-Taber Carpenter
4/12/02
Well Taber has been admitted back into hospital for at
least 3 weeks.. he is fine but his blood isn't. His last round of Chemo
really zapped his blood. he is getting blood products as well as
antibiotics. No chemo for a while. As soon as the tech department has looked
at his laptop computer he will be online from his room. Dad will forward any
emails to him until he is setup.
4/8/02
Taber has been really tired from his last chemo treatments
he will be writing real soon. check out the link to Children's Cancer Web
there is some good info.
4/6/02
Taber has been catching up on homework and getting more
chemo treatments as soon as he is able he will update his journal
3/28/02
Hey Ho! I am doing fine right now and am looking forward to Easter! I just
had a clinic day yesterday and I want you guys to hear about it. First we
went there and I met my nurse and got my height and weight taken. No big
deal really. I got hooked up to my c.v.c. with some liquids to keep me
hydrated. I played in the waiting room until they had my room ready. I
couldn’t eat all that morning because right then I was getting a bone marrow
biopsy and a lumber puncture done. It was relatively painless. You feel the
slightest hint of a needle here or there but not anything like, “AHHHH, it
hurts so much!” I was sedated and numbed with emla so it was all good. I had
a rest afterwards to sleep of the sedation and I had to lie on my back to
let the chemo circulate through my body. I ate a bunch after my nap cause
hey, I hadn’t eaten in a long time and they have me on this stuff that makes
me super hungry, and I had a pretty healthy appetite to begin with. I got
home and took it easy. Did some homework and yeah, pretty neat day. I will
be going in the hospital on Wednesday for a couple nights stay. But I will
have the laptop so I will still be able to talk. Hope you all get lots of
chocolate eggs from that Easter bunny!
Taber Carpenter
3/23/02
Sorry it took so long to get this updated. I will seriously be trying a lot
harder to update this journal! So any ways…some cool things have happened
since last time I made an entry. I got the laptop and my web cam set up so
if you have net meeting you can see me some time. I had my last two
l’Aspargenes. My last one was on the 20th. There is a picture in the gallery
of this moment. I had to get a tooth looked at because last year I cracked
off half a loose tooth on toffee and now I had to get the other half removed
on the 21st. Not a real big deal. The procedure just involved some numbing
cream and then a freezing needle which you don’t feel cause of the cream.
Then they pull it out. But that part is painless. I am a lot more used to my
c.v.c and my mom and I are real good at changing the dressing for my c.v.c
and heparin locking the line. I am having a lot of fun this spring break and
I can’t believe it snowed for so long. I mean it’s just starting to look
like spring now! I saw my first humming bird of the season not 20 minutes
ago. So yeah, get net meeting and we can arrange a videoconference sometime.
You do not need a camera, just me. But if you have one that is great! So I
am doing fine, and I hope you all enjoy your spring break!
-Taber Carpenter
