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23 Sep |
Next step, TRANSPLANT Edie, Treatments
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Edie has completed the stem cell gathering process in only 2 days. Actually, there were enough stem cells collected the first day, but that wasn’t known until after she arrived this morning for her second day of collection, so they decided to gather a few more stem cells for good measure (enough for a second transplant if necessary).
There’s no stopping the process now, so for the next 2+ weeks things can get back to some semblence of normalcy, as we wait for October 10th, when Edie will be admitted to the City of Hope, to begin the transplant.
We even managed to have a couple glasses of wine with dinner tonight.
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20 Sep |
No more wine Edie, Treatments, Wine
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Tuesday, I was worried about the election and the economy. Well now that the government has come out with a bail out plan to save Wall Street the economy, that’s one less thing to be concerned about.
Now my biggest concern is Edie’s upcoming transplant. I had mostly put that out of mind the last couple of days, but I was reminded of it last night, when Edie indicated she can’t have any more wine, at least until after enough stem cells have been collected. That process begins Monday 9/22, and could take anywhere from one day, to several, or even more days.
As if the ritual Edie goes through every night of cleaning her Hickman Line, loading up a syringe with 900 CC’s of Neupogen, and then injecting herself with it, wasn’t enough, now we have to fore go our nightly glass of wine with dinner.
I know I’d sure be having lots of problems if I were on the other end of that needle. I’m having enough trouble just watching Edie go through it herself.
Heck, it almost makes you hanker for the good old days, when the world financial systems were on the verge of collapse.
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12 Sep |
The best laid plans Edie, Treatments
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Got to the hospital around 6:30 AM, and Edie was taken upstairs to the surgery area shortly there after. I sat patiently in the waiting area for about an hour, when someone called me in.
WOW! This was great I thought. The procedure must be over already. I soon learned that was not to be the case. They hadn’t even started yet, and she wasn’t schedule for the insertion of the Hickman Line for another hour at 8:30 AM (2 hours after arriving at the hospital).
Oh well, what can you do? I should have expected it anyways. At least it gave time for the surgeon and anesthesiologist to come in, and explain the procedure to Edie and me.
According to the doctors, the procedure would take about 15 minutes, followed by 45 minutes to an hour in the recovery room, and another 30 minutes or so in the post recovery area.
Well, as I soon discovered, I either misunderstood the doctors, or they were describing a best case scenario, and this did not turn out to be a best case.
It seems Edie had a reaction to the one of the anesthesia drugs, and the surgery ended up lasting an hour and a half. So it wasn’t until around 11:15 AM (2.5 hours after the surgery started) that I was finally allowed in to the post recovery area to visit.
At that point Edie didn’t look too good. She was a little out of sorts from the drugs, could barely talk, and was feeling some discomfort in her back, neck and mouth.
Fortunately though, after about another hour, the drugs wore off, most of the discomfort went away, and she was allowed to leave around 12:30 PM (6 hours after arriving at the hospital).
So now, Edie is resting comfortably in her lounge chair, and I am able to relax somewhat as well. I say somewhat, because this is only the beginning. Tthere is still a lot more to come.