Thank you so much!

Paul wanted me to pass along his thanks to those of you that have sent him cards. We really appreciate you thinking of him and he enjoys reading them.

He is hanging in there - doing ok, except for his throat. Another side effect to deal with but he is unable to swallow or talk much. They gave him pain medication last night but it only worked for a short while. So now they gave him a button to push when he needs a little help dealing with the pain. I forget the name - the only thing that comes to mind is like a morphine drip. Today he had to force down one of those Ensure drinks. Hopefully this subsides soon.

So far, so good...

Paul has been doing really well with his new cells. He hasn't been sick, he's eating good, and getting plenty of rest. He is starting to get little red bumps all over his body, although that was kind of expected. The doctors said the most common reactions present themselves in the largest organs. The skin is the largest organ, so therefore the rash. It isn't too itchy yet, hopefully it stays that way.

The last couple of nights I have been staying at the Hampton Inn. It is a really nice hotel that is located fairly close to the hospital. They have a shuttle several times a day that I can catch to and from. I have really appreciated being so close to Paul without the drive. But I have missed my baby girl terribly. I can't wait to get home tomorrow afternoon to see her.

It's here!

The cells have arrived after their long trip from Germany!

As of 2:54 am the blood started to flow and Paul is going to be a new man. Well hopefully the same man - but healthy! It will take about 15-20 minutes to finish. Thank you God and thank you to the wonderful man who has so generously given us this chance at a new life for Paul. After a year we have the opportunity to contact the donor. I think Paul, Alayna, and I will be making a trip to Germany soon. : )

waiting and playing...

Paul and I in the middle of a rousing game of Uno. Still waiting for his cells to show up sometime this evening.

Getting closer...

I am packing my bag and trying to spend as much time with Alayna as I can before I head down to Boston. I will be staying with Paul until Sunday. The stem cells will be arriving a little after midnight tonight and will be given to Paul in the hour or two after they get to the hospital. They said I can sleep in the chair in his room tonight so I can be there for the transplant. And then the next couple of nights I will be nearby. The transplant itself is expected to be pretty anti-climactic. Paul is loving the fact that his donor is German. He is already half German and perhaps these cells will replace his Lithuanian side from his dad. :P

The current score...

Wombats 2 - Wassell's 3!
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Paul had set a trap behind the guesthouse before he left for the hospital. He would check it all the time while he was home but nothing ever wandered in to it. So yesterday my dad was working around my sister's place and heard some rustling. A woodchuck was in the trap! After many consults with Paul on what to do with it, my dad opted to release it miles away from our property. Hopefuly he doesn't find his way back! I think there is still one more living under the guest house now.

So we found out that Paul's bone marrow will be coming from a donor in Germany. The transplant will now take place on Saturday. I was able to move my hotel nights to stay the weekend with him. We talked on the phone with him several times today. He is still feeling sick but not throwing up as much. They have him on alot of medications, so he speaks almost with a slur - he is very drowsy and groggy from the drugs. I will be heading down again tomorrow morning.


But today I needed to take Alayna to her Pediatrician for her 2 year check up. My girl gained 4.5 pounds and grew 2.5 inches! We decided to stop at the park on the way home...

More of the same...

Paul is still feeling pretty bad. He is taking all the medicine he can but is still throwing up many times a day. He was able to eat a little bit of dinner tonight and a popsicle but nothing else all day.

Paul's room is pretty small but he doesn't do alot of walking around. The air is filtered and anyone who comes past that glass wall needs to wash their hands, put gloves on, and wear a mask. Any time he passes that wall to go to radiation or anything he also has to wear gloves and a mask. Actually - after wearing that mask all day long I still feel like I have one on.

The transplant is scheduled for Thursday or Friday evening depending on when it is taken from the donor. They will extract it from him in the morning and a representative from the hospital will transport it directly back and it will be given to Paul. I will be staying at a nearby hotel on Thursday and Friday night so I can spend as much time with Paul. I will post when I know the exact date.

Last round of chemo...

Paul received his first dose of chemo last night. He was not feeling well this morning and ended up vomiting. He will get another dose tonight. Tomorrow he will get 2 treatments of full body radiation, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. I hope he feels ok after all of that.

I have Paul's contact info for those that have asked. The only things not allowed on that floor are any kind of food or flowers/plants.

Brigham and Women's Hospital
Paul Wassell 6A- room 18
75 Francis St.
Boston, MA 02115
617.732.6010

Worst night ever!

Oh my gosh!

I am so happy to be in my own home safe and sound.

So we waited FOREVER yesterday to get Paul into his room. They still had someone in there so Paul didn't get in until about 9pm last night. It was a super long day! On this floor they do not allow any overnight visitors so I couldn't sleep there. At 10pm I picked up my car from valet and started on my way. I know I have told you before about the never ending construction in Kenmore Square. Well apparently my tire picked up some sort of stray metal piece because I heard some sort of flapping on my tire. I had pulled over once and didn't feel anything and my tire didn't look flat. So I drive further down Storrow Drive and the flapping was still going on and I was getting scared. I pull over again and feel all around the tire and felt a piece of wire or something. I was on a one way section so I kept driving hoping it would stay put. Nope. As soon as I got on 93N whatever was making the flapping noise worked it's way out and my tire started going down. I could only drive on it for a 1/2 mile or so and I had to pull over. The car was starting to pull. Luckily I was next to a really wide breakdown lane on the still very busy Boston highway. I am freaking out. I call Acura roadside assistance. I give him all my info and ask him if he can call the police too. He tells me that they didn't have an extra unit to send over. So as I am talking to him a box truck pulls up behind me. I am thinking to myself - that was way too fast to be roadside assistance. I ask the guy if their help would be there already. He says - ma'am I haven't dispatched anybody yet. Crap. So this truck sits back there for 5 minutes or so. I am debating my options. I opted to call 911. Five more minutes go by and that truck is still behind me. Their door opens, someone gets out. I can see the cop car pulling up and that person gets back in their car and takes off real fast.

Long story short (too late, right?!) Thank god the cop got there and was able to stay until my very new to town cousin, Robert, was able to come and sit with me until assistance got there which wasn't for another hour. I didn't get home until 2am. So tired.

Waiting...

Hi everyone. Paul is in the procedure room getting his lines inserted.

This is him before they wheeled him away. He will have 2 double port lines put in. He is expected to be in there for and hour or so and then he will go into recovery. Once a bed is available on the Oncology floor he will be admitted into a room.

His radiation was quick and again went well this morning.

The first day

Everything went really well with Paul's radiation today. It really seemed to take very little time and all of the staff was super nice and accomodating. They let me go in the room with them while they settled him in. There is a really thick door and wall that you have to go past. He had to lay on a table and wear this specially made mask. The clip below shows what it looks like. It went over his head and was then fastened to the table to prevent him from moving. They have music playing in there and just told him to relax. He will have another session tomorrow morning at 8:15.



After that he will have his Hickman lines inserted and then he will be admitted into the hospital.

Thank you so much for all of the emails and phone calls! I will post Paul's room information when we get him settled in. We really appreciate everyones thought and prayers. : )

It begins...

Today is the first day of radiation for Paul. He will receive one dose this afternoon about 4pm. The session will last about 20 minutes and will be to his head only. He will have subsequent treatments for the following 4 days. Today is outpatient and he will be able to come home. He will be admitted tomorrow. He is really nervous and we are just trying to keep his mind off of it. Please say a prayer for him.

10 years...

Today Paul and I celebrated our (not real according to Paul) anniversary early.

On October 1, 1998 we had our very first date at Olive Garden in Scottsdale. So every year we return to Olive Garden for dinner. Since Paul will be in the hospital during that time we decided to celebrate it now. Surprisingly, Alayna's favorite part of the meal was the salad.

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Afterwards we headed to the mall to let the girls run around the play area and walk off our meal.

And of course my mom and I had to hit up my newest most favorite kid's store.

Tomorrow Paul will need to visit a local lab to have some blood work done. Again it is to check on his liver function. If everything is where they want it to be he will have his 1st dose of radiation on Thursday afternoon at 4pm.

Ta dah!

I am not sure if that is how it is spelled but...


The window is in! Only one trip to Lowe's was required and very little blood was shed but it's done. One window down - about 20 more to go. Here is the progression.

















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* I feel I must add this disclaimer! Please excuse our crazy overgrown bush. We haven't had the chance to prune it! : )*

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Today was also my parents 43rd wedding anniversary. So in celebration we went to Mikata, our favorite Japanese steakhouse.

Here is my pretty girl all ready to go.

And one of the things they typically do - and Alayna's not so pleasant reaction to it. We don't know that lady in the background...

Afterwards we all enjoyed some delicious ice cream from Brewster's. Can I just say that the pumpkin pecan cheesecake that I had was D - lite - ful!!

Paul has been working on his log splitter for I don't know how long. It has been his nemesis. I think he is finally getting close to getting it done though. He is really happy about that. Tomorrow Paul and my dad plan on replacing one of the windows in our house. We had purchased a replacement window a couple years ago but it never got done. I hope to show some pictures of the completed project. If all goes well we will order more and get them all done.

Today Alayna and Eden were invited to a 2nd birthday party of their little friend Annelina.

They had so much fun playing with her and with Owen.

Lina is 4 weeks older than Alayna and Owen is 2 weeks older than Alayna. They got to make their own little pizzas and ran circles around the house. Then they got to enjoy traditional Norwegian birthday cake. Anita, Lina's mom is from Norway.

Forgive me for sharing...

But my little girl just went poo poo on the potty! Twice even, 5 minutes apart! :P I will spare you the picture my mom took though.

So which do you want first???

The good news or the bad news?

Bad news - Paul's liver enzyme levels have decreased significantly compared to last week, but are still elevated. His bilirubin numbers are also too high for their liking. Radiation and transplant have been postponed another week.

Good news - Paul is feeling well and we will have him home for another week, although he is anxious to get this going. I need to go to the pharmacy in the morning to pick up a new prescription for him which should hopefully help in lowering the numbers even more.

I guess no one said this whole process would be easy, right?

Action packed weekend...

Tomorrow morning bright and early Paul and I will head down to Boston for blood work. We are hoping his liver enzyme levels have decreased. Someone from the hospital did call to let us know that the biopsy showed his liver as inflamed, which is good. They said that points towards the blood thinner as the culprit.



As a final hurrah before Paul enters the hospital this next week we did all we could this weekend. On Friday in celebration of my Dad's 61st birthday we all went to dinner at his favorite restaurant, Texas Roadhouse. Alayna loved the fact that you could smash the peanut shells into the floor! Her dad showed her that trick.







Afterwards we went to the hotrod car show they hold every weekend in the same plaza parking lot. My mom loves purple so she gravitated towards this car. Do you see anything that shouldn't be there?!















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Then on Saturday we went to the annual Seafood Festival in Hampton Beach. Paul is the only one who likes seafood but we all enjoy walking around sampling all of the other goodies. We all had bites of lobster rolls, sausage and peppers, caramel apples, sweet potato fries, apple crisp, and fry dough! Yum! All the girls rode the train on the boardwalk.

Alayna and Eden had their faces painted. Eden was good and left her heart alone - but Alayna would wipe each time the girl went to get another color for her flower.

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And of course we had to take a stroll on the beach. The water was slightly cool but nice on the humid day. Alayna and Eden loved having the waves wash up onto their toes.

Today was the most mellow. Paul, my parents, and I attended an estate auction a few houses up the road. I had never been to one before so I was excited to see what it was like. While we were there we ran into several neighbors and friends. We only lasted a couple of hours and left with nothing. Paul and my dad watched football the rest of the afternoon and us girls went shopping. Ahh! And now we rest!

What did you do this weekend?

Help has arrived!

My parents flew into town this morning after traveling all night on the red eye. Alayna was really happy to see them. It is so good to see them and their help with everything is really appreciated.

As for Paul - they have pushed the transplant back one week while they wait for results. This buys us more time with him at home, which is good, but we were in transplant mode. Also the results were negative on his last bone marrow biopsy. No cancer!

*updated with pics from the airport!*

The waiting game...

So Paul did his blood work this morning and it showed that his liver enzyme levels had actually risen. They stopped the blood thinner last week so Dr. Wadleigh thought it would go down. He then had to do an abdominal ultrasound. They didn't see any problems with that - they were really looking for any kind of blockage. So he then had to go to Brigham to have the liver biopsy. He was very apprehensive about the procedure, as they were doing a transvenous biopsy. He wasn't happy and didn't want any needles going down his neck. But he made it through and is resting in the recovery unit now. He has to stay at the hospital for 6 hours and then I can go and pick him up.

So now we must wait for the results of the tissue sample to come back before they can proceed with the transplant.

Breaking News...

This just in -

Wombats 2 - Wassell's 2

Now back to original scheduled programming.

Wombats on the loose...

Well they aren't actually wombats - but that is what I call them. There are atleast 2 if not more fairly large woodchucks running around our property and living under the chicken coop and the guesthouse. Hannah got in a tiff with one of them one day but since then she runs away afraid of them. They actually run towards the dogs hissing at them! Buttercup is 10 pounds and these things are bigger than her. So Paul has been trying to "get rid of" them in a not so PETA friendly way. He hasn't had any luck yet. By my count, it is wombats 2 - Wassell's 1.

We have been enjoying a relaxing weekend. The weather has been really nice, pretty warm but a slight breeze. My sister and I went to Michael's today. She is joining the scrapbooking world! After that, all us girls met up with Paul at Chili's for lunch. Paul has been working on cutting down the big oak tree by the pool. And I have been working on witch shirt after witch shirt after witch shirt! I have sold nearly a dozen of them so far. That makes me really happy as she is completely my own design.

Well - we hope that you are all enjoying the long weekend. Take care!