{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}

{An Unexpected Call}

Let me start out by going back two years ago...

We were watching Extreme Home Makeover, and it was about this darling little 7 yr old boy Jonah Gomez. He was fighting leukemia and needed a bone marrow transplant. No one in his family was a match and they had searched the world wide bone marrow registry with no match found. This really hit home for us. My cousin at 14 yrs old was fighting leukemia, and Mikey's grandma had leukemia. Jonah lives in Utah and we both just felt this undeniable need to get on the registry. That night we got online and went to deletebloodcancer.org and ordered out swab kit. Just a few weeks later it came in the mail and we swabbed our cheeks and sent our DNA on its way. 

Now two years later after we had almost completely forgot about being on the registry, Mikey received a phone call, a package delivered at our house, and an e-mail from DKMS all in the matter of hours. Telling us that there is someone that Mikey is a potential match for!!  They need some blood samples to really make sure that Mikey is the match they want, and will be the best match for the patient. They also sent him lots of medical history questions they need him to fill out, to make sure the donation will be safe for him and the patient.

This is not what we were thinking would be on our fall agenda, but if Mikey is the perfect match the transplant will need to take place in the next 2-3 months. We both are just amazed that this has come up. Really not the best timing with Mikey in one of his hardest semesters at school, and we're just trying to stay afloat financially. We are both excited, nervous, and feel very strongly that we should move forward with testing.

You can visit DKMS Americas or Be the Match to order your own swab kit and get on the registry!

See the next update here

{Bear Lake}

We enjoyed another perfect week at Bear Lake...

{Workin Boy}

My jude never stops working! He loves it, and is such a big help!

{T-ball for Ashton}

Ashton loved his summer of T-ball practice and games!

Next year Jude!

Lewis, Ashton, Kyle

Go #1

{Fun with Mills Cousins}

The Mills kids got to stay with my parents for a week and we had lots of fun!

battle creek falls

Mcdonalds lunch

The grotto in payson

{Families Are Forever}

While my sisters are in town we made a trip to the temple... 

It was magical to be there with my family!

{Only for Kids}

The boys are "sleeping" in a fort we built tongight and all I hear is giggling. Walk back to their room and see this sign, and two littles trying to pretend like they are asleep! Haha! Hopefully sleep happens soon!