About Me

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Bakersfield, CA, United States
Hans was a busy, happy, sweet and fearless three year old when he was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma. He fought his disease like a "gladiator" for nearly 6 years. Hans was an animal lover to his core. He was 'guarded' at home by his three cats, Black, Orange and Cotton. He also had his Golden Retriever, Honey, to keep him company. Hans enjoyed swimming, biking, gardening, grilling (he had his very own grill!), horseback riding, playing video games, building Legos, and flipping between Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and Animal Planet. Hans loved all members of his family and he was a loyal friend. He had to go through a lot of treatment in his life. But Hans powered through it. His attitude was let's get this done! His motivation was always to get back home, to his family, pets, favorite foods and pool.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

It's a GO

Hans is in surgery right now as I type this. His CD34 came back at 17. Thank you Mozobil. Hans got a shot of this stuff yesterday in clinic and I guess it did the trick. He had to have two shots yesterday. I don't know what it is about getting shots now, but he hates it. There were four nurses in the room to give him his two shots yesterday and two of them wound up in tears. Yikes.

For a quick recap Hans counts needed to be nice and high for a collection of stem cells. This is a brief window in time after a hard chemotherapy treatment. They are placing an extra pheresis line in his femur/groin area. They will filter his blood through a machine almost like dialysis. They magically separate out the precious stem cells and store them frozen. If this collection is successful, he will have more treatment options open to him in the future. There are some treatments so harsh on the blood counts that they won't even be attempted unless the child has stem cells in the bank.

I haven't even known what to pray for throughout this long stem cell process. Now I'm praying as I always do that no new harm comes to him and that we have a successful collection. We also got news that we are likely to be here through Friday and we are not to leave LA and go back home at night. He took that news pretty well. He can take almost any news other than: time for a shot! Thankfully we have Aimee and Claire! I shall post more tomorrow.
Thanks for checking up on us!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Head 'em up, and move 'em out...round up those stem cells!!!! WHOO HOO!

Amidst all that has occurred, Hans is justified in resisting something! Right now it is shots...may this pass, too!

Thinking of Hans and his dear family with love and best wishes...holding you up from afar...

Hugs and smooches,
Aunt Susy

Anonymous said...

This is great news! Praying for a successful surgery and recovery. Sending you lots of love and strength!
love, Jana

Anonymous said...

Sounds like rest did the trick, that's great...pray's your way.
Hugs and kiss's
Brenda