Friday update!

Hi friends, we are writing to you from a hospital room at the University of Washington Medical Center Northwest Campus where Brad is on day 2 of a 5 day round of chemo. We're doing this round of "salvage" chemo in order to minimize any additional growth before we start the Stem Cell transplant process. 
Brad is tolerating the chemo really well....like REALLY well, but we know that probably won't last forever. He's been keeping busy coloring (I found a Grateful Dead coloring book for him) and doing crossword puzzles. He also did a "workout" which consisted of laps around the oncology floor while dragging his IV cart with him....it totaled .34 miles hehe.  

We hope to be home VERY late on Sunday night, Debbie the oncology nurse is doing everything she can to make that happen and we love her for it!

At this time, Brad is scheduled to spend September 1-4th at Fred Hutch getting testing done to make sure he's in good enough health for the transplant and high-dose chemo process (a physical, EKG, etc.) He'll get to come home for Labor Day weekend and then once we take him back to Seattle on the 8th, he won't return home to Cashmere for several months. This part feels really hard and sad.....who am I kidding, it's ALL really hard and sad. And at the same time, we are very hopeful that this will STOP the cancer growing in his body. 

Today the financial coordinator for the BMT team (bone barrow transplant) called to let me know she was working on pre-authorizations for our insurance - I asked her how much these transplants cost out of pocket and was shocked to hear $300K-$550 PER TRANSPLANT. WHOA. Brad says he's going to be "the million dollar man" by the time he's done :) 

Thanks for all the love, we can feel it!