Good Day -1

Last night, Stevan was given his radical chemo, Melphalan. It was a small bag that only took about 30 minutes to give through his IV. They told him it was about 11 times as much as a normal dose of chemo. They have been giving him Potassium Chloride with lasics in it to help flush the chemo out of his kidneys and bladder.  They want the chemo to do its job but not sit in these organs which could damage them.

Grace cleaning and changing his dressing.
Not the most flattering picture...
but you can see how he's bloated.

Elaine was Stevan's red headed nurse for part of the night last night. She has worked in the unit for 16 years. This morning, Grace, a young blond nurse came in to take over. She's been here 3 years. When Stevan woke up, she noticed his central line bandage looked kind of nasty. After he showered, she changed his bandaged. She will be back tomorrow.

Stevan had about a 3.5 hour nap after lunch. He stayed up late last night and I guess it caught up with him. He's in good spirits today and still has an appetite. I've been hungry for hot wings, so I went to grab us some for tonight. While I was gone, a couple of dietitians came in to discuss is diet. They encouraged him to eat things such as meat and milk; as much protein as possible. They are going to come back later so they can talk to me, since I do the cooking.

Tomorrow is the big day, Stevan's new birthday, the day he gets his stem cells. I think he's gaining persective and is being more positive about the transplant. He's been told that the last person that came through that had an auto transplant, didn't really get sick. I think hearing good things about other transplant patients is helping his attitude.

This evening we have nurse Jennifer, the night shift supervisor. She is one of the new ones assigned to the unit and has been here since August. She talked to us in more detail about what to expect in the weeks to come. She expects us to be moved down the hall and out the double doors out of the unit, and on the regular floor by Friday. So we now have something to look forward to.

I will post again tomorrow and try to give more insight about everything.