kindness floats

slowly but surely logan is recovering from his surgery of nearly 3 weeks ago. to me, he seems a little more subdued than his usual self, reminding me of what the surgeon told us: that it will take a good 6 weeks to heal fully from his operation. however, when a friend calls or comes by to play some video games, his smile illuminates the room once again. it could very well be that adults are just too boring and only want to talk about how he feels, when all logan wants to do is hang with his friends, hone his game skills... and be normal again. he is a teenager, after all.

a lot can happen in 2 weeks: logan was in children's hospital for about 12 days after surgery, and in that time stem cells were finally, successfully, harvested. the pheresis team was pleased with the quantity and quality of the stem cells retrieved over 2 days, but has decided it wants yet another harvest before 'super-chemo' begins in mid-may. this means we are back to daily shots of gs-cf, and while it is no picnic, we certainly see the wisdom have having plentiful reserves of stem cells at the ready, should logan need them all.

and now a word about the upcoming high-dose chemo: basically, in aggressively wiping out all fast growing cells and intending to target lingering cancer cells, the bone marrow itself is reduced to nothing. the stem cells, harvested earlier from his own body, will allow his bone marrow to re-generate and recover, so that it can again produce red and white blood cells and platelets. thus, logan will be confined to the hospital for a month, while his immune system rebuilds. he will need, i am told, lots and lots of platelets, which are harder to come by than blood. luckily, anyone can donate platelets, there is no blood-type restrictions, and children's hospital has a blood donor center which will accept platelet, as well as blood, donations. however, if anyone would like to donate, an appointment is necessary because they only have 2 platelet harvesting machines and the process takes 2 hours for each unit. platelet donations cannot be directed specifically to logan or anyone, because the shelf life is much shorter than for blood, but we know he will be needing lots of platelets come the second half of may and into june; it's likely that if you donate then, he will benefit directly from your donation. the number for the blood donor center at children's is 617-355-6677, if you want to schedule with them.

i will also put in a word for clementine: as a member of nauset's track team, she will be participating in the 'relay for life' next saturday, raising money for cancer research. she needs sponsors to help bring in donations for her efforts, and would appreciate anything you might want to donate to the american cancer society. email her at clem1390@hotmail.com, and she will fill you in. anything from $5 donations per luminaria (with which the track is illuminated) to any kind of amount will help fund cancer research. time is running out and she is shy to ask for donations, hence this last minute plea!

again, i extend our family's gratitude for all acts of kindness sent logan's way; i hope and intend to send out individual notes of thanks someday, but until that day, please know you continue to make a huge difference in our lives.