Southern Indiana's Community Blog

Shawn Gets a Haircut

Here is a picture of Shawn from today.  The nice gal’s at Supercuts in New Albany let us get Shawn’s hair cut after they closed tonight.  Afterwards he looked in the mirror and said “I am handsome!”  LOL…

Just a new picture to share with everyone. 

Love,

Sanya

Bone Marrow Transplant ?plan? 12/5/08

I just couldn’t wait until Monday to find out what next week holds for us so I called the office and left a message for one of the nurses to call me back.  Thankfully she did.  She explained to me in great detail about Shawn’s admission to the hospital for next week and she answered some of my questions about the transplant.  Luckily while I was on the phone with her, the transplant cordinator called me on the other line.  So here is the jist of it for now…

Shawn will go in on Monday for tissue typing which will be done via blood work.  No big deal for him, he has blood taken every week.  He then will be given a pre-admission physical for Tuesday’s admission.  Not sure how long that will all take, but we have quite a few appointments… one with his oncologist, one with out patient (OMO) and then with the cordinator who will get the rest of our family’s tests to see if we are a potentical donor for Shawn.  Thankfully for the girls it is just a swab on the inside of thier cheeks for now.  Justin and I will have blood work drawn.  I am told it will take a couple of weeks before we find out the results of these. 

Tuesday we head to the hospital so long as his physical prooves to be ok for a 6 day stay.  He will be given more chemotherapy, however these two drugs have side effects that must be monitored in the hospital.  One is low blood pressure and the other irritates the lining of his bladder so he will need medications to help combat the last drug.  Other side effects I am told are similar as to what he is going through already.  Hair loss, nausea etc…  So please keep him in your prayers next week that he doesn’t have a bad reaction to these two new drugs they are giving him.  They also will do a lumbar puncture (spinal) and deliever three medications to through the spinal collum.  One medication he gets on a regular basis through the CNS fluid, but they are adding two other meds as well.  One is a steriod and the other is called ARA-C.  He has had ARA-C before through his port, but never through the spinal collom. 

Bottom line is he going to need a bone marrow transplant in the near future.  He will continue onto bigger, badder chemotherapy drugs and all we can do is pray and believe in our oncologists.  It seems this disease doesn’t want to let go of our little man, but you know what… It can’t have him!!  He will beat this disease!!

Shawn feels fine right now.  He is loosing his hair again and has the “rock star” look most of the time.  His hair does whatever it wants and lately it seems to want to stick straight up!  He thinks it is funny so we are letting him determine how he wants to proceed.  Right now he doesn’t want to cut it.  He gets sick on a daily basis.  Sometimes once a day other days as much as three times so that part is taking its tole on him, but he is a trooper.  He really is dealing with this well and has such a spirit about him.  He is refreshing!  The girls are handling this well right now too.  We really haven’t gotten into the nitty gritty of if they are potential donors.  We are just doing the preliminary first and we will go from there.  I don’t want them laying awake at night worrying about this.   

I will let you know anything else I can find out in the next week and since we will be at the hospital for 6 days I will actually have some time to post.

Love,

Sanya

12-4-08

Here is the latest…

I am awaiting a call from the bone marrow transplant team sometime before Monday.  Shawn’s oncologist called yesterday to tell us that he will need a bone marrow transplant.  We are obviously in shock.  His bone marrow biopsy looked ok from the old definition of treating leukemia.  He is in remission, but there is a test that they send off to John Hopkins called a “MRD” (I think that is what it is called) and it showed that he still had traces of the leukemia cells in his marrow. These traces were apparently higher than what his doctors wanted to see.  The doctors want to give him the best possible chance of not having a relapse and apparently this transplant is what is needed next.  So, Justin, our daughters and I will be going in on Monday for bone marrow typing to see if any of us are a match. 

I am still sketchy on the details of how things will happen and will let you all know as I find them out.  Bear with us on this. 

Shawn will be admitted on Tuesday for inpatient chemotherapy and I am not 100% sure what all that will involve.

Please continue to keep him in your thoughts and prayers.  I know he will pull through this; it is just taking more time than we had expected. 

Lots of Love,

Sanya Bowen

?Impressionistic Reflections?
A

11/20/2008

I am getting behind on my updates.  I am sorry!

Shawn is doing really well.  He is responding to the chemotherapy rather well so far.  His counts dropped from 2600 last Thursday to 600 on Monday and today they are in the 300’s.  Which was expected.  Since his counts are so low, we most likely will be staying home for Turkey Day.  Which is scary! LOL.  I will have to cook my first turkey.  I am trying to figure out how to get out of it!  Perhaps a honey baked ham has our name on it.  We shall see.  Any ideas?

Shawn has been in a great mood lately and loved the recent basketball scrimmage we went to on Saturday.  He was in awe (see pictures) of the players and enjoyed getting autographs.  Thanks to everyone who went and for those that invited us.  We had a great time!

I want to thank everyone who has sent food, cards, emails and etc…  We are so grateful!  I haven’t had to cook for the last two months!  Thank you!! Thank you!!

Well, that is it for now.  We hope everyone has a blessed Thanksgiving!

Love,

Sanya

Visiting the Yum Center and Seeing the Cards!!

Just got back from a visit to the Yum Center (Un. of Louisville basketball practice facility) and being guests at a closed scrimmage- pictures are here and on snapfish

Shawn gets his shirt signed.

- I added

Bowens and Resniks at Yum Center

them to the ones from Shawn’s challenge. I’m also going to soon be adding Aunt Christy’s golf scramble pictures there as well.
Jen

Long overdue update 11/10/08

Sorry it has taken me this long to post an update on Shawn.  Things were hectic to say the least!!

We are at the hospital (not admitted though!!) for the next round of chemo.  Since I last posted, Shawn has been upgraded to High Risk instead of Standard Risk ALL.  Since he still has 2% leukemic cells in his bone marrow he has to go through a even more rigorous treatment now.  This “should” knock everything out.  Lets pray that it works out that way!

Shawn had a stay at the hospital again from Halloween until the Wednesday after.  He did great!  He felt wonderful!!  He has been feeling really well lately.  Sad that his counts are going to get knocked back down due to this next round of chemo and he won’t feel as well as he has been.

This weekend was wonderful!  The golf scramble and silent auction was amazing!  I am humbled by everyone’s generosity and willingness to help Shawn out!  He had fun riding in the golf carts and taking a few shots!  Thank you to everyone who was involved!  We are so very grateful and you are all a part of our family now!

Well, I think we will be leaving the hospital soon!  YAY~  So I am going to say goodbye for now.

Love,

Sanya

Assorted Pictures from the Scramble and Auction

Here are a few assorted pictures from the day- to see all you could want go to my Shawn Bowen Challenge group room on snapfish .
There are pictures from the day, of Shawn’s family (and a few blackmail ones of Shawn’s dad, Justin!) , and, of course, the guest of honor- Shawn!!!

Shawn's cousins volunteer

Justin's first golf lesson!

The food was great- THANKS!!!!

Jeremy, Justin and Brian Linde discuss the day.

Getting ready to start!

Cousin Jordan and Shawn take over the putting green when everyone headed out.

pit stop!

Team Bowen

The putt off

Everyone wanted a picture with Shawn's Aunt Christy!!! ;-)

You should have seen Sanya's (Shawn's mom) face when she found out who she was riding in the golf cart with!!!!!

Sanya's family spent the day at the silent auction.

Pictures of Shawn at the Golf Scramble

Hey everyone!
What an incredible day yesterday was!!! It was so great to meet so many of you. Here are a few pictures of Shawn’s visit to the scramble- I’ll post more from the day in awhile.
Thanks to all -everyone I spoke with yesterday talked about the ‘goodness in people’- I think we all gained alittle something just by being a part of it.
Jen

Shawn mugs with his sister, Ashley.

Shawn loved riding on the golf cart with his Uncle Jeremy!

Shawn arrives with his mom and Grandma Bowen.

Shawn arrives with his mom and Grandma Bowen.

Shawn and Uncle Jeremy

Cousin Jordan gives Shawn some pointers on the putting green.

Jordan and Shawn discussing putts!

?Cypress Sunset?
A