Stephan John Curtis

Hello to all. If you are visiting this website, odds are you know and love Steve Curtis. This site is dedicated to keeping all of you updated on his health and progress. You all know that he was diagnosed with Acute Leukemia late Friday night early Saturday morning. December 8-9 2006.
As it did with you, it came as a shock to his family. I believe we are all holding up well.
This website is mostly to cut down on the phone calls. Mom is not big on talking on the phone and the long distance bills would be huge for any of us. I, Heidi, will be doing my best to keep everything as up to date as possible on this site. If you have questions, we ask that you contact me or Melody. You are more then welcome to send e-mails to Mom and Dad even call once in a while but please don't call too much.
As of now, Steve is in room 8321 in St. Elizabeth's Hospital. He has a really bad cough that kicks in when he talks and when he sits or stands. If he coughs too hard, his vegan nerve seizes and cuts off the blood flow to his head. This causes him to pass out. Because he has passed out, he is on a monitored floor where he is hooked up to a heart monitor at all times. Yesterday, he had a bone marrow biopsy. Tomorrow he has a consultation with the doctors. Melody will be there for the consultation and take notes so that we can be better informed. We have many questions that we hope will be answered at this consultation. How long he will be in the hospital? What kind of treatment options are there? How long will it be before his immune system is strong again? Because his immune system is so vulnerable right now, he cannot have live plants or flowers in his room and there are no visitors under 13 allowed. He has asked them to restrict his visitors to 2 at a time and for only 5 minutes. He gets very tired out very quickly.
Friday night after the doctor's did a CAT scan, they started him on Chemo pills right away. Since then, the doctors are thrilled with how much his white blood cell count has dropped. What they don't understand is the power of the hundreds of people praying for Dad right now.
Dad's sister, Carol, flew in Sunday morning to be with Dad at the hospital while Mom went to church and also to be with Mom at night. I went down Monday morning since Aunt Carol had to leave Monday afternoon. I got to the hospital about 30 minutes before Aunt Carol headed back to the airport. I sat in his room and dozed off and listened to music. Dad also dozed off and we chatted when he thought of something he wanted to talk about. Never for a very long period of time. Mom came up after her piano lessons and Dad had her help him get cleaned up and get clean sheets. He felt much better after that. He seems to be very a hot all the time. He is sweating a lot, even with the air conditioner running. I left this afternoon around 2 PM because I had to get tow work but Melody came in about an hour and half after I left. She will stay until tomorrow. I am hoping to go back on Thursday or Friday but that has yet to be determined.
We have started a journal that we keep in Dad's room to write down questions and answers, important happenings, the names of the doctor's and what kind of doctor they are, the medicine's Dad is getting and what they are for. Anything we think is important. Melody with take notes from the consultation in the journal.
We do want to thank you all for the prayers you all have offered on Dad's behalf, Mom's behalf and the family's behalf. We know that they are holding us up right now. The e-mails, phone calls and notes and cards are a great encouragement to us all. We have so many offers to help in anyway I am not sure we know where to start. I do know that if and when we need it, we will be asking for it.
Most likely I will be adding a new post tomorrow evening to give you an update on how the consultation goes. We thank you again for your thoughts and prayers. Keep them up.