Light the Night Walk - October 10, 2009

Hello Everyone,

I am asking you to support a cause that is very close to my heart.

Please considering walking with us on October 10, 2009 by joining our team or making a donation in memory of my father, John Boody. Please click on the link below to see our team page.

http://pages.lightthenight.org/snj/Camden09/GPopsTeam#atabc

If you would like to mail a donation (payable to "The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society"):
Erin Ehrenworth
36 Zion Drive
Berlin, NJ 08009

Thank you!
Erin

Thank You

The Boody family would like to thank everyone for their outpouring of support during this difficult time. We were overwhelmed and amazed by the number of people that came to Jack's memorial services. Jack obviously touched a lot of lives and we are so appreciative for everyone's caring and love.

For anyone that was not able to attende the funeral services click here for a copy of the program.

Viewing and Funeral Arrangements

Viewings for Jack will be:

Wednesday, September 16th from 6:30 - 9:00 P.M

and

Thursday. September 17th from 8:30 - 9:30 A.M

McGuinness Funeral Home (Here is a link to the obituary)

573 Egg Harbor Road

Washington Township, NJ 08080

directions here

Mass to be held Thursday, September 17th 10 A.M. at:

Saint's Peter and Paul's Church

362 Ganttown Road

Turnersville, NJ 08012

Funeral service to follow Mass at:

New Saint Mary's Cemetery

515 Browning Road

Bellmawr, NJ 08031

We ask, in lieu of gifts or flowers, donations be made in honor of “John Boody” to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (link below).

Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
https://www.leukemia-lymphoma.org/all_donate?item_id=8072

We Will Always Love You Jack

Around 8:45 this morning Jack passed away surrounded by his family at the ICU at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He fought very hard for almost a month but the cancer eventually caused his blood pressure to get so low there was nothing else the doctors and nurses could do. We are so appreciative for the care at HUP, particularly the staff in the ICU and Oncology department, which gave us the precious extra weeks with Jack. We also would like to thank all the family and friends for their well wishes and kind words and for visiting during Jack’s time at the hospital. He never stopped saying how lucky he was to have such great people around him and I think that is what kept him around for so long since he was first diagnosed with cancer two years ago.

We ask, in lieu of gifts or flowers, donations be made in honor of “John Boody” to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (link below).

Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
https://www.leukemia-lymphoma.org/all_donate?item_id=8072

Again, thanks for your everyone for their love and support. I will post more details for the viewing and funeral shortly.

Back in ICU

Update 10:34 PM - Jack has some kind of infection. It could be from earlier when he was nauseous (some of it could have gone in his lungs). Right now it is not clear. Jack's lactic acid level is very high so they are monitoring it. If it gets too high the medication they have him on for his blood pressure will stop working. Right now the blood pressure medication is the only thing keeping him somewhat stable. They still have the jugular line to put back in. His heart rate was still pretty high but they have it more under control. They decided that his blood oxygen levels were so low that they needed to put him 100% on the respirator. Obviously, his cancer treatment is on hold until he is stable for a longer period of time. As I said, for now the doctors still are not certain of the root cause of Jack's breathing issues this afternoon but he is as sick as he has been since he came to the hospital.

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Update 5:12 PM - Jack has been moved back to the Intensive Care Unit. His headache has stayed even with the dose of morphine and he then he began having trouble breathing. The doctors actually gave him medicine to help get the morphine out of his system because they thought there might be a chance it was contributing to his breathing issue.

They believe that Jack may have another infection but I do not have any specifics right now. They are probably going to have to intubate Jack again and put him on the respirator. Fran and Jacks kids are in his ICU are outside his room right now.

If you were planning on coming to visit today or tomorrow I would wait to see if he stabilizes first. I will update everyone when we know more in the morning.

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2:00 PM

We visited Jack this morning to bring him a donut and coffee. The nurse was in the middle of trying to feed him his breakfast. He had a few bites but really wasn't interested in it.

Overall it has not be a good day as Jack has been complaining about a severe headache. This is this really the first time that he has said anything about real pain before so it got us a little nervous. The doctors are going to give him a small dose of morphine to help with the pain but they want to limit it so that it doesn't impact his lucidity. His ability to talk and interact is how they have been tracking his progress since the brain surgery a few weeks ago.

His overly hydrated still which will take awhile to go away. They continue to help with Lasix pills.

The alternate day schedule for Campath with will continue.

I will provide more detail later today.

Friday Night

Didn't go over tonight to visit Jack so this will be a short update.

Fran and Matt said he had been pretty tired today. His hemoglobin is still low but not low enough that he will need a transfusion. He was given more platelets today though.

Fran and Matt helped Jack eat his dinner tonight and he was a little more awake after that.

His white blood cell count is slightly higher today (in the 300's) than it was yesterday. The doctor's have said that the medicine appears to be working. Apparently the white blood cell count isn't the only measurement they use to determine its effectiveness.

Erin and I will be going over early tomorrow morning to bring Jack some more Dunkin Donuts coffee. If we talk to the doctors I will post another update then.

Thursday Night

Jack was very tired today. His hemoglobin level was very low which prevented the hospital from providing him his physical therapy today. He will need to wait until his he has a blood transfusion and is a little more rested before they will be able to get him up to try and walk and do the other therapy. This can possibly happen tomorrow depending on his condition.

He was scheduled for the blood transfusion and then he got another round of Campath (a higher dose this time) this afternoon along with the Benedryl. So, he will be even more sleepy probably. I was told the Benedryl is given because people tend to have allergic reactions to the Campath but Jack has been tolerating it well.

Christina and and her mom visited Jack this morning to make sure he ate his breakfast. They brought him some Dunkin Donuts coffee which he had been craving.

Matt saw him in the afternoon and said he was asleep and out of it most of the time and refused to eat any lunch. His appetite is probably affected by the low hemoglobin and overall lethargy. Fran and Erin said that Jack was more alert when they saw him this evening. They were able to get him to eat some dinner.