The one about a little good news....

Well, Jay is still in ICU and not much has changed...but the CT scan they did this morning came back negative...so that meant there was no bleeding in his brain...and that is very good news!!!!! He is still very out of it and the best response I got from him today was this afternoon the 5:00 pm visiting time and he opened his eyes and rolled them a little bit at me, and that was about all. They have got everything under control except for his heart rate and they think that is caused by his pain...so we are waiting for his pain to get back under control.... his breathing is just fine and they could take him off the respirator....but the Dr. tonight said that his body might get too caught up in breathing and then breathing and the pain would be difficult for both processes to be taken care of....so they are just being careful and making sure everything is healing up OK before they introduce his body into the pain and breathing right now. He is peaceful laying there (even thought he looks like one of the Borg)..... The good news is he is not bleeding in his brain and that they took out his central line from his neck and put it into his groin. After they did that it looked like his temperature went away....so that central line might have been causing an infection....but they are of course "not sure".

He is in such a critical state right now and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that your prayers and thoughts are so important right now.

needless to say....but please KUTPs!!!!!!!

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My father has come down with a sickness and so he has not gotten to see Jay at all since Jay went into ICU...so I am sure it is hard for him...but he seems to be getting very slowly better...the more rest he gets....and so because of that he has been staying at a hotel room and not been driving back to Jay and Sheila's house each night... please keep him and my Mom in your prayers as well.

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Please pray for the Murphy family. They are a wonderful family that we have gotten to know very well of the last two days in the ICU waiting room. They are such a Godly family...and a very big family too, heh. But we have had many a time of laugher and good talk with them over these last few days... They are wonderful.

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I would just like to share how much my wife means to me. She has been here supporting our entire family with sweet words of love and support and caring for each of us when sometimes it is hard for us to care for one another. She supports me more and anyone in the world and I know I would not be the man of God I am today if it were not for her love and support for me. She is the greatest gift during this hard time for me....and she is the answer to so many of yalls prayers when you side pray for me and my family. I hope she does not have to leave any time soon, because if Jay's condition changes I know that I will need her sweet hand to hold and support me with the Jesus that lives in her! Thank you girl and I love you....(I doubt you will ever read this, but I love you sooooo much!

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Yall have a good night and please in the midst of all things give praise to God the thunder speaker! Psalm 29.

KUTPs!!!!!!!!!!!

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Oh, here are some way over due emails from Sheila:

March 2nd:

TRANSPLANT STARTS SATURDAY!

They rushed his transplant to today, They called DG and had him go to
Albuquerque for the infectious disease markers today.
They ran more blood work on Jay today and he will get the set up marks for the
full body radiation on Friday after his standard treatment.
He will be getting high doses of cytoxin and full body radiation to kill his
existing bone marrow. He didn't not have radiation with his last transplant.
This will start Saturday and will be given over the coarse of next week.
Monday, DG will start his neupogen shots. They are shipping them to him in
Lexington, KY where he is going for a conference.
He will drive from Lexington to Pittsburgh and be here for Friday the 11th when
his stem cells will be extracted. They will freeze them and Saturday they will
inject them into Jay. He will probably be watched for a few days. He will need
to be brought into the hospital EVERY day for at least 2 weeks after that.

Jay's parents will be here Saturday and will stay as long as they need to.

His Doctor told him today this is the most aggressive cancer he has ever seen
and that is why he wants it expedited.

Tomorrow, I am taking him for a day on the town. We will go or do anything he
feels up to doing since it will be a very long time until he can do anything for
a while. Most likely it will be a window shopping trip to Best Buy.

Well, here we go.

Thanks to all of you who have kept us in your thoughts and prayers and please
continue to do so over the next several weeks.
You are all truly appreciated.

Thanks,
Sheila

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March 5th:

We checked Jay in at 9:00 this morning. He has already had his cytoxin (chemo)
and they have irrigated his bladder (he his VERY unhappy about this). He was in
significant pain earlier but they now have him on a dulatid (sp) (morphine like
drug) pump and he says it is a miracle drug. He can give himself a dose every
10 minutes plus it administers a standard dose every ½ hour. He is very happy
with the pain med.

His parents were delayed in getting here and they should be here at 1:00 am but
won't come by the hospital until tomorrow.

Jay just ate 2 cookies and drank some milk the first thing he had all day.

Well, my aero bed awaits.

Goodnight all.

He is in room 711.

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March 9th:

Everything is on course for the transplant. It should happen Saturday. DG is
here and he has started the neupogen and his bones are aching as normal.
DG will do the donation process on Friday.

Jay is doing well considering all that he has gone through. He has one more day
of radiation and the chemo is done.

He has had many interesting awake dreams. He dreamed last night that he had
the last drink left on the planet and the world was coming to an end but the
good guys were with him. He told me they made his drink using a blender that
went 800-900 RPMs. He said that he would rather have an appletini instead of
what they were giving him. (note: he doesn't even know what an appletini tastes
like because he's never had one.)

Yesterday, he told me not to get in trouble with the law by using the volcano to
break the law. He said his Dad showed him the catalog with the volcano in it.
This was really interesting since his Dad didn't even have a catalog to show him
let alone one with a volcano. I promised him that I would only use volcanos for
good and not evil.


Really not much more to add. Everything is on track.

--------------------------

March 11th:

They moved Jay's transplant up to today and he is officially transplanted. They
keep telling him Happy Birthday here at the hospital because it is as if he has
been reborn.
I was teasing him and said "you'll do anything to get 2 birthday's a year :-))
He has been in severe pain caused by the total body irradiation and now they
have him on a very high dose of a morphine like drug and he is sedated most of
the time and this is probably for the best since he is so uncomfortable.
The pain management Doctors are officially monitoring his pain needs and
approved increase in his pain pump medication today.

He talked to me some tonight and he is being very sweet but very drowsy,

DG donated his cells this morning and he had enough to give to Jay today and
enough to freeze for later if we need to them. He was a stem cell making
machine. Jay has a truly remarkable brother.

They are going to keep him for at least a few more days because the pain is too
much to control at home. Hopefully, by Monday they can start thinking of
sending him home. He will still need to see the Doctors every day but at least
he'll be able to sleep in his own bed.

Thanks everyone for your prayers and thoughts. They have gotten us this far.

Thanks,

Sheila
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As you can see a lot has gone on since her last email...and she has not been able to type one up for a few days...(since he has been in ICU) so I just wanted yall to have all of her emails....I try to give you all the one I have missed through this crazy time.

One other thing....the Dr. that we saw tonight was so sweet! He is a Internal Medican Dr. and he is doing his residency at the hospital...He is such a nice guy from India...and He told Sheila and me in Jay's ICU room tonight that he was watched a movie one day about a Dr. that was trying to treat a man in a town who had cancer and this man he was trying to treat would always make everyone smile and love on everyone....and the Dr. really wanted to help this man because he knew if he helped this man that he would really be helping so many other people because of the way that this man lived his life loving others.......well, he told us that every time he thought about Jay that he tonight about that man in that movie....and He just really like Jay....heh heh.....That one almost got me but I held it in...and now I am going to go to bed...and tell Tiffany that some story. :) It is amazing that Jay is doing ministry for God while unconscious in an ICU room....it really makes you think how much ministry have you done today while you are awake and feeling just fine?

Love yall and God bless yall! Love in Christ......KUTPs!!!!!!!!