Ryan Dickerson's Blog

      Hello All, Ryan has just completed his 5th stem cell treatment and is resting pretty well.  He has only 30 min. left of his 6 hours on his back, so he is getting a little antsy.  This morning, the doctors reported that Ryan’s bone marrow culture is growing very well and they expect a large number of stem cells to be ready for re-infusion on Friday.  He had no complications from the aspiration except for the irritation of having to stay off his feet for 48 hours.  He and Suzanne participated in an impromptu ice cream social on Sat. and Ryan was practically jumping around the room, he was so happy to be on his feet again.  As to the adventure I had on Sunday:  It was an amazing trip!  The scenery looked exactly like the scenes from crouching tiger, hidden dragon.  We traveled about 3 hours by bus to the rafting center up in the mountains above “thousand islands lake.”  The staff treated me to a nice buffet lunch, and we in turn, treated the local mosquitos to a Chinese and American buffet lunch.  The river was great fun.  Although, trying to paddle down flowing rapids with a three foot piece of cut bamboo wearing a wicker helmet was not easy.  Zim came with us and played his guitar as we flowed downstream.  In the slower moving areas, I helped introduce many of the nurses and therapists to the pleasures of swimming.  True, they did scream at first when I pulled them in, but in my mind those were screams of joy.  When it was all said and done, everyone had a great time.  We ended up with wet clothes, two fish swimming in a boat, a water filled guitar, some great pictures and memories that will last a lifetime.  The only injury occurred when one of the nurses tried her first throw of a frisbee.  She did not take into account her proximity to the bus on her follow through and got a small reminder from the rear view mirror.  I took a lot of pictures with a cheap camera; I bought it for 9 bucks in case it got destroyed.  Unfortunately, my cheap camera did not properly rewind the film (who still uses film cameras!), so all of the pictures were ruined.  Never fear, two of the nurses brought digital cameras and I will upload the photos to flickr as soon as I get them.  Sarah got to go to 2 birthday parties this weekend and had a great time at both.  Mom and Dad are saying goodbye to Sarah and Ann Marie is taking over till we return.  We really appreciate the help all of the grandparents have given.  We couldn’t do this without their help and support.  Thanks as always for the comments and encouragement.  We can’t wait to come home.  Take care.  Dan, Suzanne and Ryan.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 8th, 2008 at 9:27 pm and is filed under cp, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.