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.

Transplant - Day Zero

The magical bag. The red stuff is the stem cells

Now we start counting our days up from today, even though we have already been in the hospital 3 days. Transplant Day is considered to be day zero, his birthday as they call it.

This morning started earlier for Stevan than yesterday. I was able to get him up to eat and shower before the doctors made their rounds at 10am. Yeah, rough huh! Grace is our nurse again today and she gave him his pre-meds; Tylenol, Benadryl, and Hydrocortisone 30 minutes before the transplant. Within 5 minutes of receiving the Benadryl, he was out! He’s apparently very sensitive to it.

They had around 2.6 million cells in three bags. It took about 50 minutes to have all three thawed, verified and dripped through the line. I had been told that the preservative that the cells were in smelled like cream corn. It does. I actually couldn’t smell it at first, but an hour after transplant, I went to open the door to leave the room, I caught a whiff of the smell. It must be coming from Stevan’s pores in his skin. Even five hours later, the smell is even more potent in the room. I’m not sure I will be able to eat cream corn again.

Wearing his other "vacation" shirt, this is what
he's done most of the day.

Our pastor, Brother Mike showed up this afternoon. What a wonderful surprise! He couldn’t stay long, but it was nice to see a familiar face, a long way from home.

Anabel, from Physical Therapy, also came today to give him a list of exercises that he needs to do each day to keep his strength up. He didn’t look that interested in doing them. Matter of fact, this afternoon was the first time I had been able to get him up and out of the room to walk the hall in the unit, all of about 40 yards in length.

We are sitting tight, enjoying the lazy days and watching TV and movies all day… yeah hard time, I know. It’s just another day in the BMT Unit.

I have been working on fixing this site so that you can post comments on each blog. Not sure if I've got it fixed or not. I changed a few things, so let me know. Thanks Pat for pointing that out to me.