Hello! We can't believe it's Friday already. I loved Frank's post so much, but theres a lot going on over here so here is the latest!

Frank's labs have been looking better over the past 3 days. He got a bag of platelets but they've held their own at 35 the past few days. The CRP has continued to come down every day, even though he still has low grade fever at night. And... the white count has just jumped up! It went from 0.2 to 0.9 to 4.0! And this morning it's 8.15! Yippee!

We had a doctor's appointment to see Dr. Barlogie yesterday. Dr. B set things up to begin the collection process today. We are scheduled for the Apheresis room, where they will do special blood counts to see when it's time to start the process. He'll have a special CVL line put in sometime today.

Frank was honest with him about the level of pain he has been in. He seemed very concerned and ordered a MRI. He said he wants to find out what's going on "because Frank is NO wimp ~ not at all ~ " And we all agree with that don't we? The biggest concern would, of course, be if the pain is because of any myeloma not being taken care of. We don't think that's it. The more reasonable culprit is a possible compression of the vertebrae where some of the lesions are. Our prayer last night was that the test would give us some answers. We left his office at 5ish and had to be back for the MRI at 7.

Frank's taste buds have been off because of chemo, and we haven't gone out because of his white count being so low. But with both of those better, eating out was going to be a treat. So, we met the kids at The Arkansas Burger Co. Our friend Kristy recommended the place and we've been saving the opportunity for a time such as this. Hummmm... it was worth waiting for! And we made it back just in time for his appointment.

The kids had a blast over at the Ray's house. What a blessing they have been. We have mutual friends in Memphis, and they've been so sweet to take us under their wing, open up their home to us and make us feel so loved. The boys went to church Wed night with them and last night they hung out and played Rock Band. I'm so glad they can get out of the apt and have some fun.

So, here we are at the hosp. We got here 7 am sharp! Just going back to the same place we collected his stem cells almost 6 years ago brought back a flood of memories and reminded me of how far we've come in this fight.

His port-a-cath isn't working this morning. They need it to give him magnesium and platelets so he can get the CVL line put in. After the line gets put in, we'll just wait for the call that he's ready ~ or "ripe" as Frank calls it ~ to collect. It could be this afternoon, or Sat.

He's also having a PET scan tonight to go along with the MRI in their search for the cause of pain.

Please pray specifically for: his port-a-cath to work, ( they got it working! 11 am ) for the x-rays to be decisive, ( MRI showed compression, so a vertebraeplasty is scheduled for Thursday morning ) and for the kids as they travel home for the weekend.

xxooxxoo, peg