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.

Friday, November 18, 2011

x+.14+1.3+y=z

We started with a portion of cells in the bank, x. Wednesday we harvested .14 (I think this is 140,000 stem cells??), yesterday we harvested 1.3. Today we will do another harvest, y. It will all add up to z. I am hoping Z is greater than or equal to 2a - two eventual stem cell rescues that we never even need to use! How much is a resuce? I have heard two widely divergent quotes, a=1 and a=2. That's what I know for now. Today I will ask about x, and try to confirm the value of a. Tomorrow we will find out about y and z. Five years ago when we did this back in November of 2006 I just re-checked the blog and Hans got 7.9 over a day and half. But now, five years of this sometimes barbaric treatement later, he seems to be taking twice as long to produce half as much of these precious cells. It's not too often that my hopes and dreams are best described by the most basic algebra - but I am hoping that at the end of the day - z will be equal to at least one, and possibly even 2 of a.

Hans is pretty stoked to get out of here. He is counting down the hours until this pheresis can be removed at the bedside. He is getting his usual compliments. His harvest nurse Brian said two amazing things yesterday. Hans' line is the best line he has ever worked with! And, Hans is his best patient he has ever had... so tough and stoic and professional about what he's got to do up here. We hear that all the time, execpt from the poor nurses that have to give him shots. We always say Child Life needs to hire Hans for a series of procedural videos.

I'm doing my best to get through these days and not dwell on the moments we are missing out on back at home. Elle had a playoff socer game last night, and she's going to see Breaking Dawn this afternoon with our neighbors, sans her mama:( I remember thinking back when she was in Pre K starting up in soccer, "Wild horses wouldn't keep me from one of these little soccer games." Gosh, what we sure didn't see coming, wild horses, wild card, aka stage 4 high risk, multi relapsed Neuroblastoma! But, none of us would have me and Hans anywhere else in the world than to be here, banking these little bags of gold 'in case of emergency'.

Thanks for checking up on us. I keep clicking back on this video today. Ben Harper's Blessed to be a Witness.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vJEfU4qCmM

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, Lara! You are an amazing and always inspiring mama. Hans and Elle are as blessed to have you as you are to have them -- and I'm sure they know it! xo Shelley

Anonymous said...

AHHH...real-world algebraic applications! May these prove to be exactly what is needed for Hans!

Wishing you on your way HOME!!!!

Thinking of Hans and his dear family throughout each day!

Love and hugs,
Aunt Susy