It’s official we leave for home tomorrow…..PTL

At the clinic today Noel’s counts were stable enough for him to go home! Although no where near normal.

Red cells 3.14 last Monday 3.09
White cells 4.4 last Monday 2.5
Platelets. 35 last Monday. 12

Returning for a Review Wednesday 11th July. We were given the choice of Monday or Wednesday so decided on Wednesdays. It wil be the first of many Wednesdays in Boston……still a long way to go yet.

PTL the protocol of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute is to allow those who live a reasonable distance way to go home at this stage unlike the other large hospital here in Boston, Mass General who require their Stem Cell transplant patients to stay in Boston for the 100 days post transplant , I think Noel would have gone crazy to have to stay here for another 79 days but we have met people who are doing just that.

We are unable to stay less than 3 nights at the Hope Lodge so I am waiting for a call back from the social worker at the Dana Farber who helps with housing. I hope she will be able to get us a one night stay each week at a local hotel at reduced rates. Item for prayer please.

The many perscription drugs Noel is taking are begining to need to be refilled….so we talked to the pharmasist today to have the orders transferred to a local CVS….he told us to call ahead before Noel needed them as some would be special orders…he quoted one of the anti rejection drugs he is on….which is not available in a generic form. These drugs have very expensive co-pays some of them cost over 4 figures a month… This is also an item for prayer that the Lord will provide the where with all for us to afford so many expensive drugs for an extended time and for us to still meet all our normal out goings each month.

It was a quiet weekend at Hope Lodge with many people going away for the weekend…others visiting OPP SAIL and the tall ships in Boston Harbor. I would have loved to have visited them but Noel can not be where there are crowds of people, the newspaper reported thousands went. But we did have visitors… A friend from CMF Christian Military Fellowship who was in Boston with his wife for a friends birthday party, took the time to stop in to see us… Thank you Greg and a local Anglican Priest Micheal Bickford, who also visited us last week, was great to see you again. And on Sunday afternoon Jim and Jeam Morehead came to see us again….always good to see them.

So our time at Hope Lodge has been blessed…. Although it has been the time when Noel was at his lowest health wise since the Transplant he is now so very much better and even in those horrible times the blessings have been many….most of all for me, Meryl as I have had great interaction with other care givers and some patients and actually enjoyed my stay here.

Tomorrow is an early start as we (me ! ) have to wash all the bed linen etc and clean the sitting room, bedroom and bath room which have been our home for the past 3 weeks….. The Lodge relies a lot on residents to do the housekeeping and a certain amount on volunteers along with a skeleton of paid staff…this is an amazing place to have been able to stay at. If you have ever wondered what the American Cancer Society does…. Here is just one tiny example. PTL.

Please keep following our journey, reading up dates here or on face book, call us or email us or if local visit us in small numbers but please ‘phone first.
518 824 5863 for our home number.

Please pray for safe travel for us tomorrow as we drive home to Glens Falls….
For easy readjustment to normal but abnormal home life…with restrictions
For Noel ‘s donor cells to engraft well and for them to make healthy new
cells.

For Noel to remember this is early days and not to try and run before he can walk….very hard for an A personality.

Thank you again for walking this walk with us..
God Bless You all.