Tuesday Update - Melba

Dennis went down to Seattle Sunday night and I came home to work for a couple of days. I think I mentioned that my sister Sharon had come over to the hospital on Saturday to give me a breather. I figured as an RN she'd know what to ask nurses etc. It's not like she could visit since Michelle mostly sleeps. She wakes to go to the bathroom, rinse her mouth with salt water to help keep it clean and the mucositis under control - they don't want her mouth to get septic.

Talked to both her and Dennis Monday morning and hope I've got it straight - apparently when she went to the bathroom the pole that all the bags of fluids of various sorts hang on tipped over and she called for a nurse and no one came right away which sort of freaked her out because all these tubes are connected to her Hickman catheter. She later heard nurses in the hall talking about being blamed and she wasn't sure if they were talking about the fact that no one helped her to the bathroom and they'd be in trouble. She also didn't think the morphine line was working right and in the 'morphine state' of mind got a little upset and called Dennis about 8:00 and asked him to come right away. She knows that while on the morphine she doesn't understand all that is going on and wanted to make sure everything was working the way it should be. The new day nurse was very reassuring she said - we understand more than ever the need to have a caregiver with a patient at all times to ask questions and to help with the little things while nurses are busy with other patients. They have added IV nutrition now and more anti-nausea medication because, even though she doesn't feel nauseous, her stomach gets nauseated causing her to throw up, which is never pleasant. Denny said her pulse is down to 104 so that's reassuring. It still needs to get down to about 60 eventually.

Our prayer request is that the stem cells will hurry up and start kicking in to re-form her blood so she can begin to eat and drink the regular way and that the immune system will begin to be in place.

As to visitors - she mostly just sleeps so there isn't much point at this time. As to telephone calls - she's so groggy she can't always comprehend although I did talk to her about 6:00 Monday night and she sounded quite coherent. So, for a few more days we'll not encourage any visitors or phone calls. We've learned to take it a day at a time and to be patient. Thanks again all of you.

Sunday Upate - Melba

T (transplant) +6 - Michelle, though very groggy from the morphine, was able to talk to Dr. Mathis, the hospitalist Saturday evening. Hospitalists are a relatively new thing I guess. Dr. Mathis works for Group Health Insurance and cares for their patients at Virginia Mason Hospital. Michelle has developed some infection in the Hickman line and with no immunities it must be taken seriously. The Dr. said they would know more once the cultures had grown (I guess in a petri dish) and Sunday morning they would decide which anti-biotic to add to her fluid IV. Since she can't keep food down they added Dextrose to her Potassium IV plus an anti-fungal anti-biotic. Drip, drip, drip - she has all kinds of lines dripping into her Hickman lines. She did tell the Dr. she felt fine - with the morphine - was expecting to feel a lot worse, although this is bad enough. The Dr. said she is doing very well at T+6 and her color looks good. Though she felt too groggy and unsteady on her feet to try and take a shower we did take a very short walk down the hall in the afternoon. A technician came by right after that to take her vitals and her pulse was about 150, which is quite fast and her temperature had gone up to 102 degrees. He rechecked that and it was 100 degrees, which shows she does have a fever. The RN said being a bit dehydrated would cause the faster pulse, although Michelle couldn't feel that her heart was racing. So they keep on top of each little thing with some added drug. The next 5-6 days will be the 'low' point until her stem cells start doing their thing.

My sister, Sharon, came from Auburn to spend time with Michelle Sat. allowing me to come back to the apartment to shower and have lunch, although I've been eating Michelle's meals cuz they keep delivering them. Sharon showed me bus schedules so I was able to take one back from the Northgate Mall Transit Center to the hospital - a nice gal named Meadow helped me with a bus transfer cuz I've never ridden the bus. There's no cheap place to park around the hospital - not like Seattle Cancer Care where they stamp your parking ticket to allow cheaper parking. Anyway, I managed to make my way back to the apt. on the bus, but did make a car trip back to VM cuz there were some things Michelle needed from the apt. - at least the parking garage is free after 6:00PM. She encouraged me to go ahead and sleep at the apt. as she's more comfortable with the routine and nurses now. Her attitude is good and we just pray for the stem cells to grow fast.

Saturday Update - Melba

Michelle was admitted to Virginia Mason Hospital yesterday after her appt. at Group Health - her throat was so SORE she couldn't eat or drink and swallowing was very painful. Once she was admitted everyone had to come poking and prodding and getting their own pieces of information - blood draws from her double Lumen Hickman catheter and the veins in her hands, x-ray, blood pressure, temp., weight, etc. etc. She is on fluids, anti-nausea, anti-biotics, and morphine and received 2 bags of blood platelets last evening as her ANC (those are something to do with white blood cells) was too low. She hasn't had a fever and diarrhea has tapered off, which are both very good. She tried to eat a vanilla shake but up it came and she's had a few other bouts of that.

The morphine keeps her pretty well out of it so she wanted me to stay so I can ask questions and write down info. The sort of recliner in the room wasn't too bad, but we are across from the nurses station, which is noisy and of course, she gets checked for this and that all night or a beeper goes off on one of the pumps for morphine or fluids because there's an air bubble or something - not peaceful.

We are so thankful for medications and these great nurses and doctors. - course it would be less confusing if they all agreed on the way things are done, but they don't so it keeps us confused as to what's best. I'm learning to ask questions and suggest things - we just hope they all know what they're doing. :)

Michelle isn't up for visitors and with her white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets so low she has not much to fight any infection at this point. Supposedly this will continue for at least 5 days so our prayer is that by next Wed. she will be on the upward swing.

Thanks again for your prayers for her - Melba

July 5, 2007-still not in the hospital

I’m still not in the hospital. As long as I’m well enough I’ll just stay at the apartment as long as I can. It’s gotten very difficult to swallow in the last couple days. The food just scrapes down my throat. I have to chew it forever before I can swallow. It was still tolerable yesterday, but it’s not today anymore. It’s painful to swallow liquids now. The last couple nights I’ve had stomach cramping, so I haven’t gotten much sleep. Group Health gave me some anti-nausea drugs to take over the 4th while they were closed, so yesterday didn’t go too badly for me. Mom & I drove down the street to the Northgate Mall parking lot & we could see the Seattle fireworks from there last night.

I went into Group Health today & had my blood drawn & checked & was hooked up to IV fluids all morning. I go back tomorrow morning for the same thing, unless I don’t make it till then. If I get a fever or can’t eat or drink I have to head to Virginia Mason. I’m really struggling on what to do for the weekend. On one hand I’d rather stay out of the hospital if I can. It’s comforting to me to know I can just go into Group Health every morning & let them take care of me. On the other hand they’re closed on the weekends & then I have to worry about everything myself. I have a big decision to make by tomorrow. Ugh.

July 2, 2007-stem cell transplant successful!

The weekend did not go that great. I had a gaggy feeling in my throat most of the time. I just tried to lay still & not move. By the end of the weekend water made me feel like I was going to throw up, so I switched to something with flavor or carbonation even though nothing tasted good. Food left a bad aftertaste too, so I didn’t eat much either. As soon as I got to Group Health this morning they gave me an anti-nausea drug & I felt better. Thank goodness for drugs! I slept almost the whole entire day there.

The Seattle Cancer Care Alliance showed up at 11:30 am with 2 small bags of my stem cell frozen in liquid nitrogen in a big steel container. It took about 2-3 minutes to thaw out each bag in luke warm water in a container on the counter & just before the transplant I was given a big shot of Benadryl, that I felt instantly, so I was pretty out of it. Each bag took about 10 minutes to drip into me through IV. The only side affects I felt were a bad taste from the preservatives that were in with the stem cell & it made my throat scratchy & I coughed. As soon as the bags were done dripping into me the side affects stopped & I slept till about 3:30 pm. I feel fine right now, just tired. I have an appointment tomorrow morning to have my blood drawn to check my blood counts & to get IV fluids.

Friday

I get to go home today for the weekend after my afternoon treatment. As of right now I don’t need to be hooked up to fluids for the weekend. I just have to make sure I drink plenty of liquids. I have to be at Group Health at 8:00 am Monday morning for the stem cell transplant. I’ll be there for about 8 hours hooked up to IV fluids. The actual transplant will only take about 10-30 minutes depending on how many bags they separated my stem cell into & will take place somewhere around 11:00 am to noon. Monday my immune system will be completely gone. It’s on it’s way down now. Depending on how I feel I might not have to go to the hospital Tuesday. We’ll just take each day at a time.

Update - (written Thursday)

Yesterday afternoon’s chemo treatment I had some unexpected pain involved. The nurse was giving me an anti-nausea drug before I started & about half way through it I jumped out of the chair yelling in pain. It’s kind of hard to explain what happened cuz I’ve never felt anything like this before. It kind of felt like I had been shocked or this burst of extremely powerful energy went through me-very painful to say the least. Apparently I’m only supposed to have this anti-nausea drug in the morning. It lasts the whole day, so I don’t need it in the afternoon too.

Other than that little episode I’ve still been feeling good. My doctor seems surprised every time he asks me how I’m doing & I feel fine. He thinks part of it might be because I didn’t have radiation to break me down even more & I’m healthy otherwise. Hopefully I won’t be as sick through this whole thing as I was dreading. Depending on how I feel tomorrow night when I get done I might be able to go home for the weekend. Also depending on how I feel I might need to be hooked up to fluids for 4 hours on Saturday. Group Health is closed, so I would either have a nurse come in & do it or learn how to do it myself. I need to get ready to head out for my afternoon treatment again. Bye.