堅持信靠的Brian's Blog

Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Many of you celebrate the holiday with family at home, restaurant, or friend and family's house. Our family stay in hospital with TV shows, playing MaJong and lots of lunch and dinner served from many different groups. Don't worry! We got thanksgiving happy meal too, even though we can't dine with you today.
As usual, we appreciate you and thankful for your prayers.

Brian is doing well and still waiting for his blood counts to recover. He just got another bag of platelet this morning.

They plan the next Bone marrow aspirated test on next Wednesday.
Please keep praying for his blood counts and only good cells in the report.
Good timing for successful transplant.

(Psalm 107:1) Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.

God bless us all,

Mark & Anita

Dear prayer warriors,

Today is chemo 38. Brian is doing good. Still waiting for his blood count recovery in CHLA.
Thanks for many of you coming to donate your blood and platelet for him. His HGB is low, they will give him transfusion tomorrow morning.

Dear Prayer Warriors,

Today is chemo day 37. They will do bone marrow aspirate & LP this morning around 10am.

As soon as you read this email. Please pray right away.

Pray for the result will be favorite and glorify Lord's name. Only good cell, no bad cell any more.

Dr. Gaynon said "It will make me happy."

I'll let you know the result later.

Brian wrote this post on his facebook last night before he went to bed. Share with you. 

Today is chemo day 32.

Thanks VOH Charlotte and Mike Acuno came to danate the blood and visit Brian.   He has a good time to meet and talk with friends.

Mom said, " I should arrange more visit and set up a daily visit schedule for you.   It help motivate you to get up earlier and dress up sooner."    " Yes.   It is too bored to stay in hospital.   I feel I am like an animal in a zoo.  People bring food to me ( room service).   People come to talk to me and check me up ( nurse & doctors).   Finally there are my peers show up.   Of course it motivates me to get ready to meet them.   You do need to set it up for me more often.  I like it.", said Brian.

 Some of you might have not known the blood donation we need.   I attached it as below.   It will be great if you can donate platelet and blood.   Thanks for your loving care and donation to help Brian's recovery.

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Dear Families and friends,

Dr. Gaynon ever said he's not sure one chemo or 2 before 2nd transplant.
He said he will let me know after the Counts recover and bone marrow biopsy and aspirated to show how this chemo work and he will decide the next step ( one more chemo or go to transplant directly).

Please pray.

Good morning,
Thanks for your prayer. Brian is doing good. No more fever and mouth sore. Sleep well and eating good. Today is after chemo day 20. His white count is still lowest (<0.10k/u).
We need to stay here until his white count recovers.
Doctor ever said it probably takes 6 weeks for white count to produce new cell. It means another 3 weeks around.
The infection last week they found is being treated by antibiotic. It will take 14 days to finish the medicines ( until day
29). Please pray for the count recovery soon and have very good Remission. ( They will check his bone marrow after his white count recover to a good level and ANC is ANC is greater than 1K).
Dr. Gaynon doesn't sure next step until the bone marrow tells. The BMT transplant team is waiting for Brian too. I hope they can catch the botan in a good and right time. No more delay.
May the Lord grants the best plan and date for his treatment.

God bless us all,

Mark & Anita

Dear prayer warriors,

We checked in CHLA this afternoon around 2:30pm. Many preparations were done before chemo was started. 

Mom, Can we make a cake?

Brian read the box and did all the preparation and cooking process by himself.   I just stood beside him and watched him to make that cake.

Amazing!  He did a very good job.   A delicious funfetti cake.   Yam yam!!

Watching the food channel in hospital did make him a good cook............

Home sweet home!  

Today is the 2nd chemo day40.   ANC 700.   Dr. Tran said," You can go home today.   Your case manager Sherri will inform you when to come to clinic to see Dr. Gaynon."

Brian and I strolled to BMT unit and met Dr. Kapoor.   She asked, " How did City of Hope and San Jude said??"  We are surprise what she said and feel confused.

Is it why they couldn't sure the date?  they are waiting for our decision?  I did tell Kathy what we want.  I'm confused.

So, I must go to the BMT unit to talk to Dr. Kapoor again.   I showed her what San Jude said.   They agree CHLA's protocal is a good one.

Lovely Dr. Kapoor used her fingers wiped my tears many times during our conversation. 

" We know God assign your team to cure Brian.   We have strong faith and believe you can do it , will do it and must do it."

" Yes, we will do our best.", Dr. Kapoor said.   " God gives you wisdom, and you will make it successful."

It's an assurance from the Lord.   It's the perfect timing I met her and expressed my thought.

Hallelujah!   It's Him makes me stronger.   We know how to wait and expect.   Glory to His name.

After transfused a bag of platelet, we came home.    How come there is no traffic at 5pm.?   It's Sunday.......   Rest is what we all need.

Mark and Brian can sleep on their own comffy bed.     So precious and relaxed.   Praise the Lord!

Dear Prayer Warriors,

Thanks for your continual prayer.

Brian's 2 rounds of Chemo were done successfully.   His ANC is 460 today. 

Dr. Tran said he can go home tomorrow.   The plan now is they want to wait for his counts go up more to do Bone marrow aspirated biopsy.    And then schedule the transplant date base  on the data.   It probablly at the beginning of Oct.     Please keep praying for both Brian and Vivian.   

Dear prayer warriors,

I want to share with you what I answer Jennifer earlier about the updates now.

Jennifer ask,"Did you take Brian to visit UCLA or City of Hope? How is Brian? Hope he is stable. Will continue praying. GOD BLESS. "

My reply:
Brian is in CHLA And didn't go to anywhere for his counts are still the lowest.
Good news is his white cells start to produce a little bit today.

I just talked to Dr. Gaynon for an hour and half in his own office at 5pm. Thanks God. It's Friday. He was so super nice and answered all of my questions with no hassle.

I visited City of Hope by myself yesterday by myself. There were 3 people I met. A tour guide , an navigator, and a nurse . They helped me to get more idea about this hospital and view their inpatient BMT room and facility. It helps me to make decision with Dr. Gaynon today. Actually few days ago,Brian said he didn't mind to get any other opinion for his treatment. But he preferred to do it here in CHLA.
After my meeting with Dr.Gaynon this afternoon. We made the decision to not pursuing any other opinion to make things too complicated.

Now we'll aim to prepare his 2nd transplant here. It probably starts at last week of this month.
Please pray for the successful for all the preparation and transplant.

During the meeting, Dr. Gaynon praises Vivian for many times. We do need to spend time and praise and appreciate her more from now on. She is the most contributor in our family. Pray for me to love her and understand her as much as I can.

Brian is doing good and looks good too. Thanks God. That's His radiance on him to support his joy.
I feel so relax and confident now after things were clear out and the decision were made.
We know what and how to focus on and pray for.

God is good. He is in control as always. I believe, never change.
Thanks for your caring and love.

God bless,

 Anita

Dear Prayer warriors.

Brian's 2 rounds of chemo therapy was done. Today is after chemo day25. His blood counts are still lowest since chemo day12.
They checked his blood iron and found out his iron level was too high because too many blood transfusion.

Last night, they checked with MRI to make sure there is no iron staying in any organ. If no, it will easier to deal , otherwise it will have difficulty for next transplant. Please pray for no iron stay in any of his3 organs when they read the MRI report.

It takes 1 to 2 weeks to get the result
Also, he got fever at 4am. this morning (39.3c) after they do the MRI last night.
They drew the blood to see what caused the fever.
Pray for no fever and they know how to treat the infection somewhere.

Next step. The goal now is waiting for his counts to recover. They predict it will come up in this week.
If up to ANC 500, they will let us go home rest for a week and then go to next transplant. This time they will draw Vivian's stem cells for transplant. They hope Vivian's stem cell have more immune cells to kill leukemia cell ( if there are any left over show up).
We need your constantly prayer for this very critical procedure.

Our primary oncologist Dr. Gaynon also arrange 2nd opinion at City of hope to see what kind of transplant they will suggest.
Please pray for us to make the best and right choice that is from God.
Thank you very much.

Our nurse Angela has worked with us for 3 days.    Daddy said she looks like Brian's cousin ( Wan-Ju jie jie).   She does looks like her at her age of 27.   She makes us miss our family in Taiwan.    Thanks for the technology we can facetime, skype, or use facebook and line to see each other so quick once we want to.

Dr. Gaynon said today is chemo day 18.   Brian's counts will stay this low for another 2 to 3 weeks.    After his count recover,  we will check his bone marrow again.    He can go home and then go to transplant.

So, we 4 are all in CHLA to spend the family time together during the weekend.

Vivian has started her school this Monday.   Please keep praying for her.   She will be the stem cell donor for Brian's 2nd transplant.

Also, the most important thing is ......  Please pray for more joy in Brian's heart.   

God is in control.   Pray for our peace heart for all the treatment He plans.

We have more questions for Dr. Kapoor (BMT doctor) after last Friday afternoon's meeting.  She will answer more of our questions on next Monday afternoon.   Please pray for the wisdom to ask key questions and pray for BMT team doctors to have the wisdom from God to use best treatment for Brian.

God bless us all,

 Mark & Anita

Today is our primary Dr. Gaynon's term for a week. 

I saw them from home with skype.   Ray came in and talking about what is real Hawaiian shirt.  " I like your shirt, Dr. Gaynon, no matter it's real or not.   It looks good on you.", I said.

Brian's platelet was low <5K for a week and here are some skin bruises on Brian's skin.   Dr. Fryer said it's ok to wait for his own count to recovery except there are real bleeding nose or somewhere else.

But Brian felt his right eye has something like a circle block his vision after they gave him 2 bags of blood yesterday.

Until Dr. Gaynon came today, he gave him platelet right away.   And he changed the lab schedule to every other day in stead of 3 or 4 days.      "I want his platelet to stay above 20K.   Every doctor has different philosophy in many area.    The skin bruises is OK.   What I worry is Hemo like brain or behind eye's bleed.   I'll in charge for this week and I will tell them to do this way afterward.", said Dr. Gaynon.

Thanks God.   We've been asked this for a whole week.   Brian always looks good and feels good  in spirit too.   No wonder some doctors are very bold to do many decisions.     We must keep praying for our doctors too.   Platelet is a very big deal to him. 

Today is chemo day 9th.   Brian's 2nd part of chemo was done this afternoon.    Now his counts will drop to lowest and recover in few weeks.    He will stay here in CHLA until the count recovery.

The meeting with BMT Dr. Kapoor for Brian's 2nd transplant this afternoon is good.

She explained the Stem cell donation procedures to Vivian and also told Brian their treatment plan.

Thanks God for sending an angel interpreter for us in this meeting.   Theresa, she came from Taiwan, she was my senior schoolmate in my middle school and high school in Chia-Yi, Taiwan.    The most important thing is........    She used to be VOH congregation and know our senior Pastor Kwan very well.    She came not only translate for us and also pray for us while she was waiting for the meeting outside of Brian's room.     Actually, Kathy(our BMT case manager) told me it's another Catonese lady Jane will come to translate for us.    But it turned to be Theresa, my senior schoolmate.      I strongly knew she is an angel Our Divine appointment.   Her presence made me feel God's hand is here to protect, adjust, and understand He is in control.     We got another prayer warrior too.

We know God is in control although we still have lot of question to ask for the treatment.

Dr. Kapoor said, "the plan should be like this now.  We will come for more details in few weeks".

雖然我們對下一個移植計劃仍有諸多疑問, 但我看見神的手在其中如何 "調兵遣將" 來 讓我們安心地知道. 祂掌管一切. 祂調來幫我們翻譯的竟是和我如此有地緣和校緣的國中又是高中的學姊, 又是 我們教會的 前輩. 更令我感動的是祂派來一位大能的代禱勇士.

Please pray for our meeting with BMT doctor this afternoon at 2pm. to 4pm.

Brian, Vivian both need to stay firm in the Lord. For I have read the consent form last night, it involves many procedures than the first time.
Pray for Vivian with courage and peace in mind to know " God is in control".
Please pray for 4 of us to know what is the best interest for Brian.

God bless us all.

Mark & Anita