{Donation Physical}

See previous post here.

Mikey flew out yesterday to California for the Bone marrow/PBSC donation physical. I guess the doctor who is over the donation has to pass Mikey's health off and make sure he is good to go. Since the donation can't take place in Utah, out to Cali he went! DKMS will take care of all the expenses related to the trip. They just don't pay for a companion to go with him, which was sad for me. He has been so good at keeping me updated and sending lots of pictures my way though!

When he landed at the airport he had a car service waiting for him... A guy in a suit holding a "Ferguson" sign and the whole shebang! He drove a nice blacked out Lincoln, which was really cool!

The driver took him straight to the hotel where Mikey was able to check in, eat, and stay the night.

The beautiful pool at the hotel!

The next morning he needed to be at the hospital at 8 am. The hotel offered a golf cart to take him the few blocks to the hospital.

The physical went well. He said everyone took really good care of him and made sure he was in and out fast. He had a nurse assigned to him to help him get everywhere and answer all his and my questions. He had an EKG, chest x-rays, Dr exam, and blood work done. 

The car service was scheduled to pick him up later that afternoon. Mikey was able to chill at the hospital and use their internet to work on homework until he met the chauffeur at the hotel. 

We missed having him around, I know it was only one night and we got to skype him, but we're so happy he will be back home with us soon!

See next post here

{The Babies}

3 of the most influential ladies in my life

were all pregnant and due around the same time.

My BFF Harmony, and my older sisters Kristin, and Holly!

Harmony and Kristin's due date were just a day apart and they both live in AZ now... and Hollys due date is just 2 weeks after theirs. 2 of these sweet babies arrived this week and I couldn't be wishing more to just magically appear in Arizona somehow.

First, Harmony's baby boy arrived on his due date 9/17/13

Second, 2 days later Krissy's baby boy arrived on my sweet Grandma Boyer's birthday 9/19/13

{Monday thoughts}

Yesterday we took a beautiful Sunday drive around the alpine loop. It was so fun to be in the mountains we love, and have silly conversations with our boys. 

Update on our car... we decided to save ourselves some money and take out the broken windshield ourselves before the roof repairs are made. This was a lot of work (I thought), from breaking 2 tools to cleaning up all that glass!

Mikey driving Ronda to Carlos's Shop for a roof job... glad he has those safety glasses on!

Meet my pretty rental I get for the week...

I've always had a thing for Jeep and Mikey has not, so when Enterprise rented us a Jeep Patriot he said it would prove that they are junk... we'll see, I'm kinda in love with it right now!

Oh and as a reminder to my self  NEVER BUY A WHITE CAR. This is at preschool pick up and everyone drives one! Lol! It just makes me love my Black Jeep even more!

{Just Us}

We went to dinner tonight to Olive Garden, and had fun in the parking lot waiting for our table. 

Jude took our picture and said "No be cool, like this" and did a crazy face!

I love when we can take a moment out of our crazy busy student/family life and just be together. These boys make me one happy girl!

{DKMS Phone Conference}

See previous post here.

 Today we had our phone conference with our coordinator from DKMS to have all our questions and concerns answered about donating. They sent us a large information packet to help us understand the processes, side effects, and procedures. We went over all this info this weekend and shared our news with our families. We wrote down all our questions and concerns so that they could be answered in our phone call.

We had no idea that there was more than one way to donate your bone marrow. We just always pictured that they surgically take it from your lower hips/spine. Come to find out that 70% of bone marrow donations are now being done are PBSC donations. This process is done under a clinical research study reported to the FDA. (Sounds kinda scary) In order to be able to donate PBSC you need to get your stem cells out of the bone marrow and into the blood stream, they make this happen by giving you an injection every day for 5 days before the donation. The medicine is called Filgrastim, which is usually used to treat cancer patients to boost their blood cell counts. On the 5th day of the injection, which is also donation day your stem cells are collected through a process called apheresis. A needle is placed into each arm and blood is removed from a vein in one arm and passed through tubing into a blood cell separator machine. The blood is spun at high speed and the cells separate into layers. The machine collects PBSC, some platelets, and some white blood cells. Your plasma and red blood cells are returned to your body through the other arm while PBSC is put into a collection bag. This process can take 6+ hours.

When our DKMS coordinator called she was able to tell us a little about the patient Mikey was donating to, and tell us that the doctor was asking for the donation to be a PBSC donation. This was a lot for us to take in. Remember Mikey hates needles!

We wanted to know all about this Filgrastim medicine, side effects, the donation, the physical. To say the least we probably overwhelmed her with questions. From the answers we got, I got the feeling that she was most likely new to her job and didn't have very many answers. Luckily there was contact information for the donor advocacy program in our info packet. We were able to contact them and have our concerns lessened and questions answered. They were very helpful. Talking with our coordinator she informed us that there is not a donation hospital in Utah and that the closest centers would be in Colorado or California. So for the pre-donation physical they would need to fly Mikey out to the donation hospital to meet with the doctor, and that for the actual donation they would fly me and Mikey out. All expenses are covered by DKMS and the patient's insurance.

Today there was a lot to take in... the doctor wanting a PBSC donation, flying to Cali or Colorado for the donation, and all that would in tell in the coming weeks. We both still feel like this is an answer to someones pray and it really isn't an option to deny someone a new chance at life. So we move forward!
Sending prayers of love to the patient!

See the next post here

{The Storm}

We had a huge wind and rain storm blow through utah county last night. Our big tree in our front yard lost a lot of branches and one big one landed on our car and kept rolling...

This was taken during the storm (but our car was already injured by the branch)

The next morning...

Now just time to clean it all up. Anyone need plans for family home evening?! *Hint Hint*

{Blood Work + Match News}

See previous post here.

The next step in becoming the bone marrow donor was to have blood work done.

Mikey went to UVRMC to get his blood work done and sent off for testing. Mikey is terrified of needles! So this was not easy to accept that he had to get his blood drawn. I've tried to sign us up to give blood at our local blood drives and sneakily get him to donate, but it backfired on me and he said it terrified him to think that I would get poked... so neither of us ended up donating. But today he was so brave!! They took like 7 vials and said they would send it back to DKMS for testing. There was a little confusion when we first got to the hospital, they said that they hadn't ever had a bone marrow donor before. So it took them a while to figure out what they were supposed to be doing. (It shows how rare it is to be a match!) The nurse was really sweet, she said her husband and her both have been on the registry for 8+ years with no call and was kinda jealous of Mikey!

Today we got a call back for DKMS saying that the Doctor received the results from the blood work and that Mikey is the best match to the patient and an almost perfect match. They would like to move forward with him as the donor!! Wow! I'm still getting chills as I write this. The registry is a worldwide database. You can save someones life in any part of the world. This amazes me! The next step is to have a one hour phone call with our DKMS coordinator to get all the info and commit to donation. Obviously you can choose at any time not to donate, but once the patient is so far into treatment there is no turning back for them and they will die without your donation. So they ask that you really think about your decision before moving forward.

See the next post here

{Hunt Family Reunion}

Every year my Mom's side of the family gets together down in Enterprise Utah! I love it down there! So many fun memories on my Aunt and Uncle's farm and night games at the old house. I love that I now get to share and make new memories with my boys. This year Mikey had a big job to finish that weekend so Jude stayed home with him and Ashton and I gotta go party!

Brigs and Ash caught some of the craziest looking bugs!

These two were quite the mischievous pair!

We got rained out at our picnic dinner and swimming...

After it stopped a few of us got in the gorgeous hot springs filled pool!

It was D and Sky's sweet baby Rowan's blessing sunday morning so Ashton and I had to end our reunion trip a little early, but we loved being with all our family!

{We're Back In School}