Dear Friends and Family,
The past few months have been a little bit of a whirlwind since Paul’s diagnosis of mantle cell lymphoma on March 31, 2010. By God’s grace and blessings he completed 2 full cycles (4 parts) of chemotherapy without too many issues over 3+ months. His Bone Marrow biopsy and PET Scan done July 19th came back clean and Lymphoma free. So, this leaves us ready for the next step in the attempt for a cure, which is a Bone Marrow Transplant from his own peripheral stem cells.
We temporarily “moved” to Omaha, NE on August 11th and will be here for about 2 months where Paul will be a patient at the Lied Transplant Center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. He had his own stem cells “harvested” over the period of about a week where we lived in an extended stay hotel and in a hotel-like room at the Lied. Now that harvesting stem cells is complete, he has started a chemotherapy regimen for 6 days designed to completely wipe out his bone marrow . Each day has a negative number attached to it (starting with day -6) that will count down to day 0. “Day 0” is the day after the completion of the chemotherapy and is the day he will receive his “transplant”. The transplant is basically an infusion of the harvested stem cells designed to repopulate his bone marrow. His days are then numbered positively (starting with the day after transplant = “Day 1”). He will be in a family care setting called the “CO-OP Care”) at the Lied from day -6 to about day +10 to 14. This is where Heather and Paul’s Mom (Jean) will help provide a part of his nursing care. We have family and friends that are joining us there to provide additional support and to help care for Frederick. We have also been blessed with a young woman who will be staying in our home and keeping an eye on things while we are gone.
Sometime between day 10-21 Paul will get to move out of CO-OP care and we can all live together at the hotel. They say 8-10 weeks total for the Stem Cell Transplant, with the variables being how long harvest takes and how long immediate post transplant of stem cells goes. We will “live” at the Residence Inn in Omaha before and possibly after stem-cell transplant. We will have a “real” kitchen at the hotel and will have a refrigerator & microwave at the Lied. There may be an opportunity for Heather and Frederick to return home for a brief visit or two if things go well.
We have really appreciated everyone’s love and support the past 4 months! We are truly blessed and thank God for how He has been faithful through every challenge we have faced. We treasure the words of encouragement that everyone has shared with us. For now, we will get our mail at the home address (104 Lillian Lane, Waterloo, IA 50701) and will let everyone know when we get a temporary Omaha address. We are working on setting up a blog, but for now please feel free to e-mail Heather at
. Please feel free to share this e-mail with others that may know us, but that we might not have been able to keep up to date.
Again, THANK YOU for all of your love, support & prayers,
Paul & Heather Burgett (& Family)
104 Lillian Lane
Waterloo, IA 50701
319-234-8078 Home
319-290-0577 HB Cell
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Get in the Act: Lampost Theatre Co. announces auditions for Pyrates, an original production featuring music, comedy and a message. We need a large cast, singing and non-singing roles ranging from HS to Senior adults. No Experience necessary. Auditions August 30 at 7pm and August 31 at 4pm and 7pm. For more information contact 277-8034