donating blood and/or platelets

Dear Family and Friends,

More Praise...

The good news in a nut shell is that things are looking up and we may be able to come home in a couple of days. Counts have improved, tumors are smaller, no more rash, he is eating and walking around, his sinus infection is cleared, he has gained his weight back and we now know the mystery "thing" on his lungs is a yeast infection. The infection is being treated with antibiotics and should be gone in 4 - 6 weeks. We should have our new treatment plan/map in the next day or two as the original chemo was just too much for his body to handle, hence all of the problems he encountered and almost daily transfusions of blood and/or platelets AND Cody's spirits are still good even after all he has been through in the last month. God gave us an amazing boy.

Since Friday, many things have come about. He developed a rash over his entire body, which could be a number of things. The doctors eliminated or changed some of the many drugs etc. he is/was on to try and determine the culprit. After 2 days that all cleared up, cause still unknown. Could have been the transfusions.

Saturday and Sunday they harvested his stem cells. He had to have an additional catheter placed in his groin area for the procedure, which was uncomfortable, but he was a trooper. After 2 days of harvesting (5 hours each day that he had to be still) it was determined that we were not collecting enough to warrant additional days to harvest this time around so will have to do this again at the end of his next cycle of chemo. Argh... After the first day of harvesting, we were told that he had a good harvest, which we were excited about, however, the person calculating, miscalculated..so this information was very disappointing as we only got 4% of what we needed rather than the 73% we thought we had.

Three days ago they started him on marinol (a marijuana derivative) to help with his appetite and nausea. It was doing a good job as he ate in a big way. The next day they doubled the dose. Oops...too much. He was a lethargic lump for two days and was seeing and hearing things that weren't really there. Needless to say, they reduced the dose immediately.

Several people have inquired about donating blood and/or platelets. I spoke with the blood bank about designating donations to Cody. They recommended calling first to do a phone interview, then setting up a time to come in. The phone number is 714-532-8339. They are located across the street from CHOC at: 505 S. Main St. Suite 185, Orange, CA. 92868-3874. Donating blood takes about an hour and platelets take about 2 1/2 hours.

It is overwhelming to think about how many people are praying for Cody...from all corners of the world. We so appreciate your prayers,love, generosity and kindness.

Thank you so very much,

The Days