Heading to a BMT

Luke has made the decision to go forward with a bone marrow transplant.  Kendall is a 10/10 HLA match which is a big plus.  Kens will need to make a trip to Houston for further testing and if that all goes well she will be Luke’s donor.  When Luke is scheduled for his BMT Kendall will make a second trip to Houston and the day of his transplant they will take a liter of her bone marrow to give to Luke. 

The date of Luke’s BMT has not been scheduled.  He is expecting that the BMT will be within 4 to 5 weeks.  When Luke is scheduled he will be admitted a week before the BMT and receive chemo to kill his own bone marrow.  Following the BMT he will remain in MDA in isolation until the transplanted bone marrow begins to produce white blood cells.  We are expecting that the stay in MDA will be a minimum of 4 weeks after the BMT. 

After the BMT Luke is going to need a lot of platelets and blood.  The transplant team suggested platelet and blood donations close to the time of the BMT to assure availability for Luke.  I may try to schedule a blood drive at LRC but if you can and are willing to donate platelets please let me know (davenovick@att.net) and I will let you know what the timing is as far as scheduling a donation.

Until the BMT date is finalized Luke will continue with chemo.  Tomorrow he is scheduled for another round of methotrexate which will probably keep him in MDA until at least Friday.     

Thank you to everyone that donated to Light the Night.  Team Luke raised almost $33,000 and was the number 1 fund raising team participating in the downtown walk.  Thank all of you that came out for the walk on the 12^th.  The turnout was great and The Team Luke t-shirts stood out in the crowd.   

Luke celebrated his 24^th birthday on October 5.  As a birthday gift Gayle got tickets for Luke and me to see his buddy Garth Brooks in Las Vegas on October 19.  Garth’s show was the man and his guitar.  He spent two hours entertaining the audience with stories of the individuals and music that influenced him.  He played a lot of covers of the artists that influenced him and his songs that they influenced.  I was amazed with number of covers Garth played that are on Luke’s own playlist.  All and all it was a wonderful trip and along the way he shot automatic rifles, a couple of pistols and a tommy gun and drove a few high speed four wheel vehicles at the Las Vegas Speedway.  In addition Luke demonstrated his gambling prowess and arrived back in Houston with a couple of hundred dollars more than what he left Houston with. 

October 1

I just realized it’s been a month since there was an update.

Luke had a scan of his chest done two weeks ago. Scan showed progress being made in the fungus battle. He will have another scan at the end of October and if that is looks good infectious disease would clear him for bone marrow transplant team if that is what he wants to do.

For now it’s chemo. Routine is pretty well established. Round one in current cycle is methotrexate. Its been taking at least two weeks for counts to recover after round one and he usually gets a transfusion or tow (platelets or blood). The second round of the cycle is cytoxin is scheduled for tomorrow.

Kendall is between jobs and was off for the month of September. After two weeks in Montana at Tony’s parents she spent 10 days in Houston. Beth came through town for a few days as well.

Luke was feeling well enough to play Rudy’s and Genuwine during September. He also traveled to Nashville. The music department worked with him to complete work in two classes he started in January and trip was to take finals in those two classes…..he passed!

The Light the Night Walk is October 12th at Discovery Green. Hope you can join us……..this year Team Luke will again have a tent and as an added attraction/incentive Team Luke will be providing “Luck Feukemia” t-shirts for all walkers! Shirts are guaranteed to be collector’s items.

Team Luke is still open for donations at http://pages.lightthenight.org/txg/Houston13/DNovick We’re at 50% of the goal so donations are welcome.