Diane Jensen: Surprise!

Saturday, May 2, 2015

Surprise!

Yesterday on the way to the Homestead Resort in Midway UT, Diane wanted to stop at the outlet malls at the Park City turnoff. We did and only went to two stores. One was the kitchen gadget store and the other was Eddie Bauer. While we were looking in the store with Aaron, Stephanie and Caleb, we turned around and there stood Addy, Emerson, Jordan and Jeremy. That ended the shopping! What a surprise that was, we were both in tears with joy. That meant that our whole family was together for the weekend. Jeremy and family had left Great Falls Montana at4:30 the previous afternoon and drove during the night to get to the Homestead at 2 in the morning to be able to surprise us that morning. That meant so much to us to be able to spend the time with all of them before Diane starts her next round of chemo on the 13th and then on to the transplant on the 8th of June. Turns out all the kids knew they were coming and kept the secret from us. Haline and Aaron had been keeping in touch with Jeremy to let him know where we were all along the way since we left home. All the grandkids had a wonderful time being together, as did our kids. Thanks kids for a really wonderful surprise!

2 comments:

christiMay 4, 2015 at 9:26 PM
I am so glad that you all got to be together!!
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Penny :)May 7, 2015 at 12:12 PM
What a wonderful surprise! Have a great time! 😃
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Diane is very thankful for any well wishes, even if she is not able to respond to all of them.

Diane's MDS Diagnosis

The hospital encourages visits when she is home or inpatient. Call first to insure she feels well enough at any particular time for visiting. Her immune system is severely compromised, so we ask you not to visit with young children or if you are ill. Currently she is an outpatient.

Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) is a bone marrow disease much like cancer. If left untreated, it will eventually lead to the failure of the bone marrow (requiring transfusions) or Leukemia.

The only way to prevent this is undergoing a bone marrow transplant. Presently, her blast counts are increasing faster than expected but have not reached the level of Leukemia. Her blood counts are lower now and she has had a transfusion to help with this. She is to proceed with the bone marrow transplant now because of how rapidly the MDS is progressing.

Diane will enter the LDS Hospital's Bone Marrow Transplant Unit on Wednesday, December 17^th. She will undergo alternating rounds of chemotherapy for about 2 weeks. The chemotherapy will kill the blood producing cells, as well as her immune system.

Once the blast counts are reduced enough, then Diane will receive a stem cell (bone marrow) transplant. Diane’s sister, Tracey, is a half match and is to be the stem cell donor. However, effort is still underway to get a full match in time for the transfusion. The purpose of the transplant is to have the healthy stem cells replace the unhealthy ones killed by the chemotherapy (in the bone marrow). Once the transplant is done she will be on medicine to prevent rejection for some time (estimated 6 months to a year).

Mid term bone marrow biopsy coming up on (day 17) Friday, Jan. 2 nd. Find out if more chemo might be needed after the results of that test come back. Then another biopsy about day 35. Transplant could take place around day 42 the doctor said.

At this time (June 30) no transplant is scheduled. The disease became active again about mid June. Her blast numbers increased rapidly within just a weekend. Had they been able to do transplant (June 8) it would NOT have been successful, and she would have gone thru much trama for nothing. She has started another round of chemo aimed at controlling the MDS to lower blast levels.

Both the chemotherapy and the stem cell transfusion will be very hard on Diane. We ask for your prayers of strength and comfort on her behalf.

This site will be updated with Diane’s progress.