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.

It Begins... Day -2

It has been a very busy few days. I don't think I sat down over the last three days except when I was riding in the car and I sat down to eat. Stevan had his pre-op on Thursday, then Friday and Saturday was spent taking care of last minute things. Yesterday we went to church and came home to finish packing, had Dustin's birthday party with lots of friends and family, so we were kind of late getting off to the city last night .

Quinton catheter, double -lumen

We got to our hotel around 10:30pm. At pre-op, Thursday, we filled out paperwork and got him pre-registered for surgery to put in his central line. We had to be here at the out patient surgery at 5:30 am this morning. His surgery is at 7:30 am and lasted about a half hour. They put in a Quinton catheter, double-lumen. He's a bit sore from it.

I have to talk about the wonderful nurse we have here at the unit. Debby is the units daytime supervisor. She says that they normally have a 3 or 2 to 1 ratio of patients to nurses.  She has been in our room most of the day getting to know us, learning about Stevan's habits, medicines, tendencies and getting a good dose of his sense of humor. She is a woman of faith. and told us soon after we arrived that her mother had multiple myeloma. She had been in "remission" for a while before developing pancreatic cancer, which took her life about 4mths later, last year.  She has told us what we should expect from the nurses over the weeks to come and told us to speak up if we think they are not doing what they should be doing.

He has a small room, with a bathroom. Only he is allowed to use it. They will be measuring everything coming out and going in him. I will be sleeping in room with him in a nice overstuffed recliner but I will have to shower and use the visitors bathroom down the hall. Everyone going in and out of his room have to wash their hands.

Many people have asked how to send cards to Stevan. They do not allow fresh flowers, or silk flowers with moss in the unit. He can not have honey, fresh fruits or vegetables, or black pepper. All of his drinks must be sealed, all food must be covered and freshly cooked.  They do allow balloon bouquets, cookie bouquets, and candies or snacks (as long as they are sealed up).
The address is as follows:
OU MEDICAL CENTER/Presbyterian Tower
C/o The Bone Marrow Transplant Unit/room #702
Stevan Womack
700 N.E. 13th Street
Oklahoma City, OK 73104

His Respatory Therapist, Albert, came in around 5pm and gave Stevan a breathing treatment and albruteral. He wont have that again unless he's here for more than 21 days. This is to prevent him from getting pneumonia. They will begin his heavy chemo around 7pm tonight. He will be given Melphanlan over the next two days. This will cause him to loose his hair, his appetite, have diarrhea, mouth sores and possible fever. It wont kick in for a few days though.

They are getting ready to do a shift change and do bedside reports so I will close for now.