Room 4531 for BMT -6 Day

We got to Huntsman around 9 this morning to begin the chemotherapy part of the bone marrow transplant process. A whole new set of staff and personnel to get to know and trust. He is anxious, but doing alright. I am grateful to the crazy December weather making my drives to Huntsman pleasant. The first chemo is a two hour one and then it is repeated in 12 hours. Dale will have a rest time in the middle, although, the nurse said they always take 4 AM vitals, blood labs, and check on him more frequently for everything else. He has already made it through this far today without too much problem. He reports only a headache. So far, they are keeping the central line in and will monitor it for possible problems beyond the blood clots. Dale's neck appears to be less swollen to me. If there is not progress, the doctor said they would take it out and access blood lines differently. This is -6 day of ?? I don't have their calendar yet, but the doctor explained the days before the actual bone marrow transplant is calculated as negative numbers until BMT begins at day 1. There it is: a new journey in this CANCER adventure.

Room 4531 BMT

Ready to begin BMT chemo

BMT time

Met with BMT doctor today. Dale begins the process on Friday. Five days of chemotherapy that was described as pretty tough. Usual complications include, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and headaches. Sounds familiar. Next, the transplant process begins. Dale's harvested stem cells are introduced to his system at that time and all will be well...he will stay at Huntsman for three-four weeks depending on how well he does.  After that, Dale will come home and I will need to stay home. The critical part includes potential infections, extreme blood level and temperature changes, and overall disruption in health condition. I know we could get neighbors to assist in staying with him while I go to work, however, the fewer germs brought home by me and by a variety of people helping out, the better he will be able to begin building his system. During that time, we will continue to have blood lab trips to Huntsman. Perhaps those could be done at the Huntsman Cancer center by us that opens next month. That would be nice.

Nag

Things are going along just fine. Dale has not needed extra days at Huntsman for three weeks now. He has cabin fever and feels well enough that he wants to be out of the house. We have actually ventured out a little. Dale driving even. I have to remind (nag) him that there are germs everywhere, don't touch that, sanitize your hands again, and again, and although he feels okay, there are infections lurking around the outside world awaiting a weak spot to land on. The blood clot appears to be shrinking, but an ultrasound will tell us that next week. Waiting we do until BMT tells us what is next.

Merry Christmas!

It is Christmas Day and we say Merry Christmas to all! This weekend brought visitors, carolers, and family time. We love it when we are able to spend time with friends and family. Thank you to each who continuously remember us. Yesterday, Dale felt well enough to help with house chores, although today, he slept most of the day. A good day to rest. I was able to enjoy Mom's carrot cake, and my sister's summer squash soup left over from a delightful Christmas Eve feast. Not a white Christmas but a Christmas full of love and hope.

Good news

Today's tests went smooth, quicker than scheduled, although it seemed that they took at least a pint of blood in various colored test tubes. Once we got home, the nurse called Dale with the colon biopsy results. Tubular pre-cancerous polyps--which is good news. Not that serious and can be taken care of easily. Don't know when or how but good news. Glad we did not have to wait until late next week to know what the biopsy said.

A Christmas week to enjoy without appointments, tests, labs and hopefully no unexpected or unplanned events for the next several days. Next planned event is appointment with BMT doctor in five days.

Special people in our lives continue to show love, concern, and support. Facebook messages, notes in our message box on our doorstep, thoughtful Christmas cards and gifts, personal visits, and winter snow elves have come at needed times. The timing of all these gifts fascinates me. I have needed you and so I thank you for listening to my subliminal cries.

(Go ahead a click on ads once in awhile. We might get a few pennies for the clicks.)

Are you kidding?

Today brought along many more questions and a day of waiting. Dale was scheduled for his colonoscopy at 7:15 AM and had to wait until 11:00 AM to finally get in. Some scheduling issue. Did not set the day off well. Next, when the doctor told what he found in the colon, it went down hill from there. Not just the "normal" polyps but some unusual ones in many places. He took many for biopsy so we wait for answers late next week.

Dale needed to have his port re-dressed so we headed to 2nd floor clinics we always go to at Huntsman. There they also drew blood labs and as the nurse discussed the lab results and possible reasons for the colon issues, she stopped and looked more carefully at Dale and suggested he may have a blood clot around the port. She sent us to ultra-sound at University (where we happened to meet Dale's nephew who works there, and a friend from Dale's work) to check on the central port lines Dale has in his chest. They have been there since August for access to chemotherapy, blood draws, and all the drip lines he needs during therapy. Sure enough, the technician verified the blood clots.

Are you kidding me? What next? Poor guy. What that means: two weeks of blood thinner injection twice a day, then ultra-sound again. This may or may not slow down the bone marrow transplant process. Don't know that yet. We still go tomorrow for all the tests for BMT and meet with them next week. Perhaps biopsies will be complete by then and we will know more. Sure am glad for the astute nurse that noticed.

P.S. In cleaning up after grandkids, one "o is for olive" toy was found. Yahoo! I might do that again, so they will have to come back to claim it.

Hide the remotes

I wore Dale out today with some sunshine and mall walking. It was not quite as fun as yesterday was with the grandkids. It turned out delightfully. I was told to hide remotes, magazines, get DVDs, and let them use iphones/ipad and all would be well. I threw in some pizza for good measure. It worked. Dale maintained well and enjoyed the company very much.

Today Dale is "prepping" for the colonoscopy tomorrow and recouping from the action of the day. He is doing fine otherwise. We are waiting for tomorrow's test results, meeting with BMT team and moving into the next phase.