My Darling Patrick!! Sending you boatloads of love from the coast of Maine. I was just in Jackson Hole this month and these are two pics I took and knew they would put a smile on your face! This is truly a face only a mother could love! You are in my heart to stay! Love you, Joanie

Day -3

Patrick started his immune suppressant therapy today. It's a combination of drugs called Tacrolimus and Sirolimus that will help prevent graft vs host disease when he receives his transplant.

His doctors are monitoring his white blood cell count, blood platelets and hemoglobin levels. These values will be dramatically decreasing over the next 72 hours in preparation for his transplant on Wednesday.

Patrick is doing well. He says he's, "Hangin' in there!" He surprised his nurses today by walking out to the lobby and soaking up a little sun by the windows. After his chemo, they didn't expect him to be getting out of bed at all! My Hero!

Day -4

Today was a rough day. Patrick had his four hour chemo infusion and his conditioning is now complete. He's exhausted. He slept most of the afternoon but he is doing very well. He'll have intravenous nutrition starting tonight to keep his weight up. His taste buds are all screwy and everything tastes bad...his favorite chewing gum tastes like play dough. Fortunately this is only temporary.
Now, a little channel surfing and then off to bed.
Oh! Patrick's cousin Fran shared something funny with me...Some of you may know that today was the Kentucky Derby. Well, there was a horse called "Paddy O'Prado" in the race! And he finished in 3rd place! Good job Papa!
Buenas noches!

Hola Dad!
We miss you so much! We're saying our prayers and mantras so you can get better real quick, OK? We can't wait for you to come home. Our bellies need scratching and your face needs licking!
We love you muy muchos woofitos!
See you soon!
Your muppets, Stella and Greyson.

Day -5

Patrick had his last two radiation treatments today. So glad that's done! He's doing very well...some nausea but the meds took care of that. He has a four hour chemo infusion tomorrow at 10am so please, everyone, send some good vibes this way that he will tolerate it well.

Patrick's brother Seamus was in to COH today to start his preparations. He had his first two, of eight, Neupogen injections. The Neupogen will stimulate production of the stem cells that will be collected from Seamus and introduced into Patrick's system. These stem cells will grow into Patrick's new bone marrow and immune system.

I know I've said this before and I'll say it again and again, thank you all so much for your prayers, support, positive energy and intentions. They make all the difference!
Gracias!

Day -6

The view of Beautiful, snow capped, Mt. Baldy from Patrick's room

Great day today! I can't believe Patrick's conditioning is almost complete. I'm so proud of him. He's doing so well!

Patrick's room is about 1/4 mile's walk from the radiation clinic. Porters come, armed with a wheel chair, to take him back and forth to his appointments. Well, today, Patrick decided he'd like to walk. So he did. He walked back and forth to all of his treatments. Porters following along behind him, pushing an empty wheel chair. That's our Patrick!

His radiation treatments are a full body exposure of about 15 minutes per session. He has to stand perfectly still during the treatments. Special, custom made, shields are used to protect his lungs. Yesterday and today, in addition to his full body treatments, he received targeted, depth specific, radiation to treat his ribcage (front and back).

Now it's time for turkey and stuffed potato dinner, washed down with a little Modern Marvels on The History Channel.

Buenas noches!

Here's our girl, Molly, two weekends ago. After all she's been through, she sends her love and support to you boys too. She says "If I can do it, you can do it!" Woof! ;)
Marc & Tim