And We Thought We Were Having A Good Day: Day +3 and 4

It seems to never fail, when I leave the hospital even for a short time, Stevan has drama. Yesterday was going so well. Stevan was still having some rib pain on his right side but with pain meds, he was managing. He had eaten breakfast a little lunch. He seemed to be doing good so I went to catch up with a former co-worker and get our laundry done up. He requested I bring back fried chicken, which he can’t get from the hospital cafeteria. I texted him several times so he would know what I was doing and would soon be back. After I took care of everything, including going to Wal-Mart to pick up another couple of shirts and sweatpants for him, it was after 10:30 PM by the time I got back to the hospital.

He was so excited to get his chicken but after eating he said that it didn’t have any flavor. It tasted like cardboard. He then proceeded to tell me that after I had left they had taken him downstairs to get x-rays of his chest, due to the pain had increased. It got so bad that they had to give him morphine to ease the pain faster. They also gave him some cream to put on his ribs that should help relax the muscles around the ribs. They had taken him off oxygen earlier in the day, but since he was on morphine they put him back on the oxygen. His tongue has turned white. Not sure why. They have given him another mouthwash to help with that.

By the time his red headed nurse, Jenni came in to do his midnight vitals, he was again in a lot of pain and wanted to sleep. She gave him some Benadryl and Morphine and out he went. Throughout the night she gave him more morphine and finally some Oxycodone this morning so it would last longer.

The doctor on call this weekend is Dr Carla Kurkjian. She examined Stevan’s ribs and told us that the x-rays showed nothing was broken and that it was more than likely from the neulasta shot he received on Thursday. She told him to be sure and do his breathing exercises so that he would expand his lungs and prevent pneumonia.

Dr. Khalil, Stevan's hematologist oncologist, stopped by this morning to visit. He asked if Dr. Holter has discussed with us, maintance medicines after the transplant. He agrees that there is not a right or wrong way to proceed, but encouraged us to begin thinking about what we want to do after the transplant is complete and be ready to discuss it with him and Dr. Holter at that time. Stevan is looking forward to not being on any meds after treatment if they are not needed. The Revlimid, makes him shaky and the dex has its own symptoms he has to deal with.

As I began to type this post up, Stevan got sick to his stomach and up came his fried chicken from last night. I called the nurse and she brought him some more anti- nausea medicine. This time it has knocked him out. He should sleep most of this afternoon.

Seeing him like this is heart breaking. I know that he's ok when he picking on me and giving me a hard time. When he's not feeling good he gets really sappy and lets his guard down. Over the last couple of days I've seen him near tears as his chin begins to quiver. He's been quite clingy over the last couple of days, wanting me to hold his hand, scratch his head or arm and rub his belly when it hurts. I will be sitting by his bedside today to make sure he knows he's not alone.

I'm actually enjoying the time to relax, sleep in, watch tons of TV, play on the internet and read. The only thing better would be at home doing all of this. Many have asked when we will get to come home. The doctors have said 10 to 14 days from transplant. That would be around June 7 to 9. Stevan's counts came down drastically last night.

Types of cells in the blood.

White Cells 1.4
Red Cells 3.48
Platelets 149

They said within the next day or two his white cells will drop to under 1 and he will then need blood products, such as platelets. Tomorrow I will let you know what that means and what many of you can do to help us with this.

Thank you for the continued prayers. Apparently we have the worse to go through before it gets better.

Still Hanging in There Day +1

I don't whether to be relieved or scared. Stevan is still doing well even though his numbers are still going down. He has not been sick, no diarrhea, and no nausea. This was really an uneventful day for us. He slept, or tried to sleep most of the day. I had a hard time getting him to get up take his daily shower and walk until after 6 tonight. When he did walk he did more than I expected. Yesterday he walked the "track" three times. I told him he should do at least one more than that. He made 10 rounds.

On Monday a stool sample was taken for testing. He tested positive for Vancomycin Resistant Enterococci, VRE for short. This is germs found in the bowel that is resistant to the antibiotic Vancomycin, that is used to treat the infection caused by Enterococci.  They don't know how he got it, but people who are at risk for getting VRE are those who have been in an intensive care unit, are sick with a long-term illness, have been on many different types of antibiotics, have had major surgery or had an organ or bone marrow transplant. This means that he is in isolation to prevent VRE from spreading to other patients. Nurses coming into his room now have to wear gowns and gloves. Visitors are to report to the nurses station for directions on what to do to enter his room now. I was told to wash my hands up to my elbow constantly. I'm to use the alcohol-based hand sanitizer coming and going from his room. The main question we had was "Is he contagious?" Answer, "NO". Its more to protect Stevan than anyone else. VRE is not spread by coughing or sneezing. It can be on your hands, and can get their from your stool or urine. It spreads by touching anything if you do not clean your hands. Hands must be washed for ten seconds or cleaned using an alcohol-based hand cleaner. It really isnt as bad as it sounds.

Stevan making phonecalls tonight.

On to the numbers! When we asked the doctors about Stevan's M-spike results from January's bone marrow biopsy, we discovered he obtained zero. Yeah! So that is why they were pushing for him to do the transplant.  Looking at his blood test results from last Thursday during pre-op and then last nights numbers here are the results.
                      5/17     5/24
White Cells     8.6       3.2
Red Cells       4.05     3.31
Platelets         404      244
Hemoglobin   12.6     10.4

In other medical things to report for the day... Stevan was given Neulasta today, to get his white cell back up to working, even though his numbers are not low yet. This will cause some aches and pains similar to his neupogen shots he had before his harvest. Talking to his evening nurse tonight, she said that it would be about day 7 when his numbers get down to their lowest numbers. She also said that he would be allowed to go home when his ANC, absolute neutrophil counts, is greater than 500 for 3 days. Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell that fights against infection and must be calculated by a formula.  I'll  be asking for this count now.

After posting pictures of Stevan the last couple of days, I've had several people ask why he was so swollen. Last night we discovered he had gained 18 lbs in 24 hours, due to all of the fluids he was getting. Even the nurses were surprised at how much he was holding. I asked the doctors this morning about his bloating. They decided to give him a one time shot of lasix to help flush him out. LOL... he got up every 30 to 45 minutes for 5 hours to relieve himself. He just got weighed tonight and he has lost 10 lbs since last night. The lasix are doing their job.

All is going well which proves the prayers are working. Thank you!