The last couple weeks have managed to both drag and somehow
become a blur.
Maybe this is because I
am just tired.
That said, I didn’t fully
comprehend how much has happened in the last couple weeks since the last blog.
That’s the danger of taking things one day at
a time…each day is its own entity full of crap that ranges from being worth
blogging about to being nothing more than an annoyance best forgotten.
When John said I might want to update the
blog, I was more than dismayed by the fact that updating everyone would entail
writing a freaking novel.
So people be
warned…it’s a long one.
Grab a beer and
be entertained, or take your laptop to the crapper and accomplish two things at
once.
Either way, sorry if you get bored
and start to nod off…hopefully it won’t be mid you-know-what if you're trying to
kill two birds with one stone.
Here is a snippet of what went on prior to him getting
admitted into the hospital.
He got a
shot of Neupogen each evening Saturday (4/7) – Tuesday (4/10).
Tuesday morning they put the central line in
his chest, and he is now walking around with two IV tubes hanging out the left
side of his chest.
The main portal into
his chest is covered with a dressing that has to be changed periodically, or
immediately if it gets wet.
See picture
below…
The same evening of the day they placed the central line, he
got his last Neupogen shot.
Then based
on a preliminary estimate of what they would be able to collect for stem cells
they also decided to give him a shot of Mozobil which is something akin to the
“bulldozer” of shots for stem cell collection.
The next morning I dropped him back off at Moffitt and they hooked his
IV tubes up and began the stem cell collection.
For those of you who have ever donated plasma, it is similar to
that.
Basically, they suck out blood through
one of the IV tubes, send it through this HUGE spinning machine next to him,
keep the stem cells in one bag, and put everything else back into him via the
other IV tube.
See picture below…
Stem cell collection took from 8 a.m. until 3:30 p.m.
Then we had to wait for them to count the
cells to make sure they collected enough.
It took about 4 hours for them to count, and they won’t let you leave
because if you didn’t collect enough, they have to give you another Mozobil
shot so that you can come back bright and early the next day for another full
day of collection.
He needed 4 million
and fortunately they were able to collect 5.2 million!
We went home and the remainder of the week was
just some easy breezy visits to Moffitt to get his line flushed.
Fortunately my sister flew in during all of
this and took over as CEO of the Herbst household for a week.
Only a sister would wait up until midnight,
reheat the dinner you missed, and sit with you to make sure you didn’t face
plant into your food.
Monday (4/16) was hospital admittance day, and having been
through a few different hospital stays with him I can safely say that there is
nothing like checking into the bone marrow transplant unit at Moffitt!
It’s like the flood gates to Rome open
up…nurses were in and out, hooking him up, weighing, measuring, evaluating,
quizzing, and instructing; social workers were stopping by to introduce
themselves; transition nurses stop by; and physician assistants come in and
review everything you just told the last six people.
Once things quieted down, John took a
shower…which might seem like a small insignificant detail.
However, it is worth noting that John solidly
refused to shower since the placement of his central line, which I might remind
you all, was the prior Tuesday…yes you did your math correctly…six days and no
shower.
Apparently, he was a wee bit
worried about getting the central line dressing wet and having to race up to
Moffitt to have it changed.
Suffice to say,
that shower was a relief to us all.
After his shower and dinner, we settled in to wait for chemo
to begin which was scheduled for 10 p.m.
The original plan was that I would stay until about 9ish and keep him
company via Skype during the Melphalan drip.
No dice.
I stayed to the last dang
drip!
The two brown bags at the top are
the Melphalan.
So John…when you get
excited to point out that Sean posted (and possibly self-declared) that it was
husband appreciation day…there you go buddy!
J
The next day, Tuesday, was an uneventful day of rest for him.
Wednesday was Day 0 – transplant day.
While it sounds like it is a surgery, a bone
marrow transplant is really something like a blood transfusion. See the
pictures below for his stem cell transplant bags.
He got 6 bags and it took about 15 minutes
per bag.
They say that since transplant gives you a new lease on
life; every day after transplant is a new day.
We are officially at Day + 4!
Since the chemo, John has been feeling increasingly crappy which will probably
continue for another few day.
His white
cell counts are continuing to drop and we are just waiting on engraftment to
happen where he begins to grow new stem cells.
Right now he is neutropenic (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutropenia)
and will probably be in the hospital another 10-12 days or so depending upon
his numbers.
His biggest problem
continues to be the neuropathy in his feet as the Melphalan seemed to aggravate
things.
For my part, here are some important lessons I have learned
during this process.
Hospital pull-out
couches suck and will not give you a good night’s sleep.
Running is really good therapy, but running
when you are dog tired is much easier after a couple cups of coffee…however it
is really important to use the bathroom first.
And making casual conversation with people while you are leaving the
hospital and walking to the car can sometimes be the most terrifying thing you
can do.
Even if there is some mysterious
reason that your paths crossed, it can completely derail you, so just avoid
random conversations.
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