One LONG Night and Day

Let me start by saying, those of you who know me know that I am easy going and I get along with most people. We love coming to OU Medical Center and have had a good experience overall. However, early this morning the ER receptionist saw the NOT So NICE side of me. It took me raising my voice and getting nasty with them. I told him that we had driven 4 hours up there and sat in the ER waiting room 7 1/2 hours and I was about to page Dr Holter, who had told us to come up and get a CT scan. We didn't know if he had a tumor, or could have a stroke or what! He told me that he would find out what they could do in the back.

Apparently I rose enough of a stink, they called his name within two minutes at 1am. Dr Godfry in the ER examined Stevan and finally got him in for a CT scan around 3am. Afterward I was able to grab a few Z's by sitting in a straight back chair sideways with my head resting on the walls rail. I'm sure I looked a sight, but I felt a bit better. Around 4:30am the results came back. He has a mass behind his left eye which is making his eye protrude outward.

Dr Godfry called in the emergency eye doctor to come evaluate his eyes. She determined that his eyesight is 20/20 and the mass is not attached to or has any connection to the eye or the optic nerve. The mass is simply pushing his eye outward, which is causing him to have problems with double, blurred and problems with his sight.

About 5:30am, we were told that the BMT unit was having him admitted to room 750, to then determine what they needed to do with the mass. Dr Selby, from the transplant unit, came to visit and evaluate Stevan next. He explained that the mass was more than likely a plasmacytoma, caused by the plasma cells, where they multiply and crowd out normal blood cells, forming a tumor/mass. They want to take a biopsy of the mass, but they are concerned on how to exactly do that. Their first comment was "Can we stick a needle in and through your eye to grab a tissue sample?" WHAT? We don't think so. We had two doctors come in from the Eye Institute to evaluate his eyes, yet again. They concluded that they would follow his progress, but when it comes to getting the biopsy, they were recommending the neuro unit to get involved.

Dr Selby discussed with us the options we had to treat the mass after the biopsy. One option is they can treat the mass with radiation, but that could risk and damage the eye. Second to treat with chemo medicines, Dexamethasone (or there was something else he rattled off to use) and hope that it shrinks it down. Finally, they might be able to take it out.

They got a chest x-ray and did a lot of labs, including the 24 hour urine sample, to check out the myeloma levels in his system. They are looking at his back again and the problems he's having with it.

This afternoon we got some sleep. I forgot to bring my glasses, so I took out my contacts and went blind for a while to rest my eyes.

I figure we will be here for several days. I doubt if we get any answers until Monday. Thank you for the prayers. More updates to come tomorrow.

Fever!!! Really??? Day +61

I got about three hours sleep this morning after spending two hours in the Paris ER last night. Stevan wasn’t feeling good yesterday afternoon. He began to complain about an upset stomach after eating lunch and having his afternoon medicine. He layed down from 5pm til 7:30pm. He finally got up to hang out with me and the kids, but after 10pm he asked me to get the thermometer. He thought he might have a temperature... sure enough, 101.1. We called the BMT unit in OKC and got ahold of his favorite nurse, Jenny. We told her what was going on.

Let me back up a bit and tell you the back story here. Friday Stevan and a friend of his began working on a chicken pen that we desperately needed to house our growing population of chickens, baby guineas and baby turkeys. Stevan doesn’t seem to know when to stop... so he got too hot.

Jenny told us that she would call the doctor on call and let us know what we should do. A few minutes later she called and told us to go to the emergency room closest to us. I took his temp again and it was going up.. 101.3 By the time we got him to Paris ER it was midnight and his fever was up to 103. They ran a CBC, UA and urine culture, chest x-ray, and blood cultures. Everything came back clean. They gave him two Tylenol and checked his vitals after an hour. His fever dropped to 99.2 so they released him around 2:15am.

We called the Cancer clinic this morning and told Sheri, the Medical Assistant, what had happened. We discussed what he had been doing. She agreed that he more than likely just got too hot, but she would discuss it with the doctor and would call back. She did say that he didn’t need to be outside at all today.

Stevan slept most of the morning but got up to go eat lunch at the "red B", where I was working today. He then visited his mom and came home for his health care nurse to do her weekly blood draw and hook him up to his medicine. He was asleep when I got home at 3:30pm. I layed down and we both slept till 7pm. I finally got up and did some chores around the house, cracked open a watermelon for dinner and he got up to eat some. Around 10pm he checked his temp again and it had come up again... 101. I checked it a few minutes later and it was at 100.

We discussed what to do and he decided to take two Tylenol and go to bed. We will call the clinic again in the morning and let them know what happened. I dont think either one of us can handle another night like last night.

Hopefully we won’t have to go to OKC, but I have my doubts that they will have us stay to stay home and do nothing.