Highs and Lows

posted by Mary on The Me Two

Thank you everyone for all the well wishes for Drew. The last week has been an extremely difficult one for Drew, my parents and the rest of Team Llewellyn. We are all so humbled by the amount of prayers, cards, emails, and calls that have been directed his way since last Sunday. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

The short version of a very long story is that Drew's cancer is much more serious than we originally thought. At first it presented as a small area on the wall of the bowel, but the latest scans show that it is actually taking hold of a great deal of his abdomen and pelvis. We learned this past Monday at Duke that his version of Burkitt's Lymphoma is also related to leukemia (this explains why it is so aggressive).

The long version: We started out the week upset the cancer had returned and each day we got worse news about his illness. Wade and I were in Charleston for a business trip but came home quickly after getting the prognosis that Drew was not just concerning the doctors but he was in very serious condition. The difficult decision was made on Friday to withdraw Ben from school in Australia so that he could be home with the family. So he filled out the paperwork to take an "intermission" (sounds so much better than dropping out, doesn't it?) and quickly left the country. By the way, Ben would make a horrible escape artist since it took his girlfriend, girlfriend's mother, and dad's best friend to get him packed, ticketed, and out of the country. But they did it in 30 hours (plus flying time).

We bunkered down in the hospital in very large numbers (so much so that we got moved to the suite, complete with a sitting room) and all stared at Drew for about 24 hours. Then Saturday afternoon, in true Drew form, he bolted awake. The massive steroid dose, more than consumed by the entire NFL, and other chemo was finally working. For the first time in days, he was chatty and starving. It took the entire group to explain to Drew that you can't eat a 20 oz steak when you have not held down water in 5 days. Just the idea that he wanted to eat was good news enough to let us all sleep a little easier Saturday night.

By Sunday he was looking good, eating a little bit, and his blood work looked better than it had in days-all good news. Hopeful, tired and groggy, we packed Drew in a car Sunday afternoon to head to the Duke Adult Bone Marrow Transplant Center in Durham. Duke is the best place for the type of transplant Drew needs, so we all tagged along to hear their opinion.

In the Duke brochure, they suggested to be prepared for a long day, pack a snack, and hope for the best while expecting the worse. We brought an overflowing basket of snacks provided by Drew's wonderful friend Brian and somehow fit six Llewellyn-sized people plus Drew's tiny girlfriend Jordan into the cramped exam room. (I am sure we were their largest crowd yet.) Each person who came to talk to us (nurse, social worker, PA, doc, etc) was visibly uncomfortable at first with having to perform in front of such a big group. The day was very informative, filled with plenty of positive and negative news.

Here is what we learned:
-Drew will do another round of Chemo/Steriods in Charlotte over the next month.

-Drew will go to Duke for 9 days of extreme Chemo, followed by a bone marrow transplant. We all gave blood on Monday and are waiting to hear back if any of the siblings are possible donors. Ben would be the best option, so keep your fingers crossed. If there is not a family match we then turn to the donor registry and hope there is match there. We may also bank Westbrook's stem cells from his cord blood in case they could be used.

-Mom and Drew will then live in Durham for about 100 days while Drew gets poked and prodded on a daily basis. The clinic provides an apartment near by for Mom that comes complete with all the necessities and biweekly maids. Mom is thrilled with the idea of maids but after her last relocation of Australia, Durham is not really that enticing.

-From the first day he is at Duke until the transplant is considered finished/successful is about 1 year.

-Mom & Dad finally get to say one of their kids is enrolled at Duke - they just won't specify that the enrollment is at the medical center, not the medical school.

-This is an extremely risky procedure - however, Drew is younger, stronger, and healthier than the average patient for Duke and therefore he should do extremely well!