October 17,2007

(Posted by Shari)

Dale has been doing so well over the last 8 months after his bone marrow transplant. Unfortunately on Tuesday the Inouye's received bad news. Dale's leukemia reoccurred. Dale had another bone marrow biopsy on Tuesday which confirmed that the leukemia has repopulated his bone marrow. Today Dale went back to the clinic where he received a unit of blood and treatment options were discussed. He will be admitted tomorrow for port-o-cath placement and initiation of chemo. He will probably be hospitalized for about 4 days. Needless to say Dale was disappointed in hearing that he will need further treatment. Dale is a stoic little fighter and it is encouraging to see him still able to smile.
The hope with this next chemo treatment is to get back into remission. The Inouye's appreciate your prayers for strength and healing.

Am I handsome or what? Got Blood?



Falling Asleep On The Job

BINGO!!!!!!

Day + 217

Dale is now 7 months post transplant. He continues to do well. His labs are stable and is currently in the process of weaning his anti-rejection medicine. He in now only on 1 cyclosporine pill a day. We hope to be completely off this medication in a couple of weeks. A few weeks ago the doctors told us that the blood tests showed Derek's marrow has engrafted. What a blessing!!! Dale is still not allowed to go to school just yet so he continues to home school . We still have the same home school teacher and Dale really likes her. In fact, we all really like her. Now that Derek is in middle school , Dale has to go to his class every day to pick up and turn in his assignments. Although he cannot stay , he enjoys seeing his friends and teacher for a few minutes every day. He works hard to keep up. He rarely takes breaks unless it's time to eat or take Eski for a walk. He takes one afternoon break to go outside and play. One of Dale's favorite things to do during his break is to go next door and bring our neighbor's dog Biscuit over to play with Eski. They love to chase each other around and Dale watches over them while shooting baskets in the yard. When the two dogs are too tired to move, Dale puts Eski in our backyard and Biscuit goes home. Sometimes Biscuit plays in our backyard and we take him home later. Dale continues to play basketball with his team. He has practice once a week and games on the weekend. He is allowed to play as long as no one on the team is sick. He also attends a Fundamentals basketball camp on Saturday. He continues with his piano and hula and is starting back up with his violin lessons. We are grateful for all that Dale is able to do as we wait patiently with grateful hearts for the things he wants to do but can't. Thank you all for your continued support and prayers.

pictures

Proud Fisherman at Tenaya Lake in Yosemite National Park


Mr. Yamazawa (ALL bone marrow recipient) presented Dale with a thousand cranes before having lunch at Grandma June's house.

Day +187

Dale has now officially passed the 6 month mile stone. He is doing well. His hair has grown in very curly and has lost 20 pounds since his discharge from the hospital. He is now looking more like Danny instead of Derek. Although lately Dale has developed allergies very similar to Dereks. He never used to sneeze or have the sniffles. Derek on the other hand is very sensitive to allergens and sneezes all the time. So interestingly, Dale's body is reacting now to different allergens much like Derek. I thought he caught a cold but his latest blood work showed 11.7% eosinophils (upper limit - 6.4%) . Dale is now off Cellcept. He will be weaned off the cyclosporine next. His labs are stable. 2 weeks ago , Dale joined his brothers in Las Vegas for a basketball tournament. Dale was allowed to participate in the tournament. He also joined his team in the river pool at the MGM after the last game on Sunday. Dale was good about wearing his mask inside the casinos as we walked through to go to our room. Meals were a little tricky since Dale is still not allowed to eat fast foods or buffets. Breakfast was cereal in our room and lunch was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches eaten in the car as we traveled from one of his games to either Danny or Derek's games. We ate in non crowded restaurants for dinner and asked if they could microwave his food after it was prepared. One night, Dale and I ordered plate lunch from the "Cal" and brought it back to our room to microwave and eat while Derek joined his team at a seafood buffet . (Yes, we brought our own microwave) We came home Monday and in 4 days Derek, Dale and I were on a bus to Yosemite to meet up with Wade and Danny who had been hiking with the boy scouts (Troop 719) for the last 5 days. We spent 3 days in Yosemite. 4 boys(Derek, Dale, and friends Noah and Yoki) and I went fishing at Tenaya Lake as we waited for the hikers to come out. We caught 4 fish in about 3 hours. Each boy caught a fish which was very exciting. This was the first time fishing without a net for me so bringing it onto the rocks was quite a challenge. Derek was the only one willing to get his boots wet and catch the fish with his hands so the line wouln't break while bring the fish out of the water. Yosemite was beautiful and we all had a great time. The boy scouts and dads came out hungry and very dirty. Prior to leaving for Yosemite, we met a man who also had ALL like Dale and received a bone marrow transplant 4 years ago. The donor was Wade's cousin. Mr. Yamazawa is orginially from Japan and now resides in North Carolina. He owns a Japanese restaurant and is a sushi chef. He presented Dale with a thousand cranes, each crane folded after 3 hrs of chanting (Buddhist) first. So after 3,000 hours of chanting, 1000 cranes were folded, strung together and given to Dale. He said many of his friends around the world helped to make these cranes, again each person chanting 3 hrs before folding one crane. Each person also had a photo of Dale and some background information so they knew who and what they were chanting for. Dale noticed that some of the cranes were folded with christmas wrapping paper and other types fo paper. He explained that origami (japanese folding paper) is not available to everyone so they use whatever type of paper they had and cut it into 4 x 4 squares. Mr Yamazawa is a humble man filled with much gratitude. He now travels back and forth to Japan visiting other cancer patients trying to give them a glimmer of hope. It was a wonderful experience meeting him. Dale has now received over 5,000 cranes . We are grateful for the love and support he has received and continues to receive. I apologize for the long post. Grace and peace to you all......

FOR Golf tournament

Day +170

Dale continues to do well and has been quite busy the last 2 weeks. Thursday, Aug. 2nd was the last day of F.O.R. golf. Dale received a beautiful plaque for finishing second in the tournament. We were all surprised and Dale was very happy. Dale and Derek have also been attending the "Fundamentals" basketball camp with Coach Kitani and his staff for the past 5 days. Dale was extremely sore the first few days but as the days went on he felt better. Dale came home everyday tired yet happy that he made it through 3 hours of basketball. Yesterday was his once a month doctor visit in clinic at UCLA. The Hb went up to 9.4 and Hct - 29.1. Unfortunately the differential was not available so we were unable to calculate the ANC. The WBC however was 3.77. The liver enzymes remain normal and the cyclosporine level also remains fairly stable at 166. The cellcept is now down to one a day. ( he was initially taking 2 capsules three times a day) Once the cellcept is off, they will start to taper off the cyclosporine. The doctors were pleased with his progress and encouraged Dale to keep up the good work. During his free time, Dale enjoys reading "Naruto" comic books. Lately, he has been reading these books more than playing with his game boy. He also enjoys watching "Ninja Warrior", a competition of strength and agility among men who have been training for years. It is a japanese show with english subtitles. It is actually quite entertaining to watch. Dale has us all watching it. Thank you for your continued support and prayers. It helps us to stay strong and positive. Grace and peace to you all......