Well, its been an interesting couple of weeks. First, I started and completed my 3rd cycle of chemotherapy, which included 7 days of injections and 10 days of pills. A little bit of nausea but mostly weakness and fatigue lasting a little longer than the previous two cycles.

Secondly, our spark in the darkness made her arrival. My wife, Mary, was scheduled for induction on Friday but there were no available rooms so we got bumped until Sunday morning. We arrived and had an IV placed, ultrasound and assigned a room. Then Mary received the induction medication and was progressing very smoothly with mild contractions every 4-5 minutes. She also had a balloon placed and that assisted in getting her to 4cm. We were walking the halls, talking with our birth partner, Bev, and performing pelvic rotations on the exercise ball. As she stood up from the ball she had quite a bit of blood come out. So they called the doctor and when she checked her, she was at 7cm but alot more blood clots came out. Baby's oxygen saturation began to drop as well so Mary was rushed to the operating room for an emergency c-section. Our daughter, Ember Madison was born weighing 6 lbs 15 oz and 19 inches long with the cord wrapped around her neck but recovered quickly. Unfortuantely, she accidently tore Mary's uterus during the birthing process. Also the placenta had ruptered and she was losing a lot of blood. Mary ending up losing 3 pints of blood and the rapid response team brought fresh blood to the operating room to replace the blood lost. It was a stressful time. Both Ember and Mary are recovering well and Ember was above her birth weight at initial pediatrian visit on day 7.

Third, we had to evacuate due to a fire near our home. I evacuated with the boys to a friends house and an hour later it was announced they had to evacuate as well. I was stuck in traffic for close to an hour and only moved 500 yards. A lot of flashbacks to the Camp Fire in 2018 came back to me. Luckily, my friend informed me about an alternate route and I was able to get to it and travel several miles in just a few minutes and get out of the danger zone. We met up with grandma, wife, and baby girl and went to our cousins house two hours away. To add to the stressful time, when we returned home three days later, our power had been turned off and when it came back on it tripped a breaker that controlled our fridge and freezer. So we had to throw out all of our food. Thankfully, we have had an amazing group of friends and family support us with food and financial assistance to help offset the loss during this difficult time.

As for my treatment, I have completed most of the pre-admission testing, echo, pulmonary function test, ultrasound to re-check my upper extremity DVT. I have one more doctor visit, some labwork and chest xray to be ready for admission. My doctors have identified and selected a donor and I am scheduled for admission on July 25th. I will have 5 days of intensive chemotherapy and radiation to destroy my cells and prep my body for transplant followed by a rest day. Transplant day is scheduled for 8/1. I welcome all the prayers, good thoughts, or words of encouragement for me and my family during this difficult stage of the journey.