Monday, February 22, 2010

City of Hope: The first day

Well, blood has been drawn, temperature and weight recorded and IV's hooked up...the new leg of the journey has begun! Todd received his first radiation treatment this morning and is doing well. He will get irradiated (scary word) two more time today and eight more times over the next 3 days. Then the chemo begins. He is going to feel pretty awful, but as his tweets/FB have said, Todd is ready for a fight!

I wanted to post the address here in case anyone wanted to send a card...

Todd Larsen
c/o City of Hope
1500 E. Duarte Rd.
Duarte, CA 91010-3000

Due to his soon to be immuno-compromised status please do not send fresh flowers, fruit...basically anything that was once alive or is currently alive :)

All our love,
Todd and Kelly

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Next stop...City of Hope

I just finished a battery of pre-tests over the last three days at City of Hope and the next step is transplant. I'm being admitted this Sunday February 21 and will then undergo 4 days of full body radiation followed by a week of chemo. This is to knock my immune system down really low and wipe out my bone marrow completely. I will receive my bone marrow transplant on March 2. (My new 2nd birthday) It will be like a blood transfusion.... 3-4 hours of getting someone else's stem cells and then it's a waiting game of making sure my body and the new cells "get along". There is a risk of Graft vs. Host disease, but my doctor has ways of minimizing that and/or combating it if it happens. I am a little scared but I am in good hands. I will be watched closely by my doctors for about 100 days after transplant and then return home to finish recovering for another 6-9 months.
I am so grateful we are at this point in this battle and that someone has agreed to give of themselves and donate to me. It is literally saving my life and I don't even know who they are. Yet. I will be given that opportunity in about a year.
It is a scary thing to have a life-threatening disease. I never thought I would know what that feels like. It has changed me. I see how precious and fragile life is. My list of "what's important" has changed a bit too. All we truly have are each other and when I think about all the people who have done so much for me and my family over the last 5 months I am blown away by the love and compassion shown to us. It reaffirms that we do only have one another and those solid, loving relationships will help us through anything that we are faced with. We are all so fortunate to have such a strong community of amazing people around us. It really does take a small army to take on this thing called life and TOGETHER we will KEEP GOING!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Recycling Drive This Weekend!!!!!

Don't forget - this Saturday morning the 13th is our next Recycling drive for Todd Larsen & Family. We'll be at Meadowood Park & Northpark Community Center early to pick-up, sort & then donate to beat Todd's fight against leukemia. If you would like to join us to volunteer, just show up at either park or email redmond@help-our-coach.org. Thanks to all the kids that are making this happen for Todd and his Family.”

Questions? Robin Edmond redmond2@cox.net


Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Benefit Concert Rocked!!!

Thank you for your support at the Todd Rocks Concert! It was a great party!!!

I will post photos and video as soon as I get them!

Here is a great report done by Kcal9 :

The Garden Grove Channel 3 crew put the Todd Rocks story on YouTube- Check out this link!

~Tiffany

Monday, February 1, 2010

I have a transplant donor!

Kelly and I visited City of Hope on Thursday and my Doctor told us they have found a great donor for me. We are so excited!! The transplant process will start in mid February. While at C of H I will undergo more chemo and full body radiation right before the transplant.
I will be in the Hospital for about a month and then closely monitored on a daily basis for another 3-4 months. We will be transplanting the whole family to the Pasadena area for that time. They said it would be about a year after transplant when I can start teaching again. It takes that long for my immune system to fully recover.
We know that we are so blessed to be at this point. Thank you so much for all the prayers! We couldn't be doing this without all the help everyone has given us.
I want to thank all the kids for all the letters, home-made cards, emails, facebook wishes and tweets. They all brighten my day like you wont believe! I miss you all and I miss teaching you so much. Thank you everyone!!

Don't miss the upcoming concert at House of Blues February 1st. It's gonna be rockin'!!