Day +1

Earthquake Tony is past for now.  The last fever was over 24 hours ago.  The fevers really took a bite out of his energy reserves.  There has been more nausea, but sleep is helping with that.  This evening, Tony is more energetic, lively and interested today.  He has been helping me get a computer program for sharing files between our phones and the laptop and he's helping me with this Blog. This is good!  For those of you sending emails, texts and calling, Tony is really only awake for 2-3 hours a day, right now.  So, I am reading him your messages but he is not replying to them right now.

Dominic and Jackie (our nephew and niece) are Rock Stars around here.  Apparently, the nurses have never had anyone make a paper chain to count down the fist 100 days after transplant and the nurses are WOWed!  In case you don't know what a paper chain is, you use it as a count down!  You take off one link each day to count down to your goal.  Dominic and Jackie decorated 100 links, connected them and mailed them to Uncle Tony.  (OK, Angela helped with a lot of it.)  Tony and I hung it in his hospital room, so he can look at it and every day we will take off a link and put it up in the room.  I took a picture for everyone to see.

Day Zero - Got the Cells

Picture 1 - Got the Cells - Thumbs Up!              Picture 2 - Every Last Drop!

Day 0

Greetings and salutations loved ones! (Karen here again)

Well, it is Day 0! The Transplant went off without a hitch. (I am not a fluids and ooze kind of person, but for those of you that are, boy was it a cool day. The Stem Cells looked an awful lot like dark colored Campbell's Tomato Soup). (Ugh!!) The transfusion took about an hour. We had a chaplain come in a few minutes before and say a few prayers and a few blessings. She was no Father Carl, but it was nice and simple.

I wrote yesterday that Tony has been having some fevers. They come and go as the Tylenol works its magic and then fades away. Its hard because he has tremors and they really hit him hard. They take a lot of energy! But the nurses are great and have the ability to give him many different meds to try to alleviate all the discomfort.

Everything else is looking good. We are hoping the fevers will fade completely in the next 24 hours. Tony and I will keep you posted! When he is feeling more energetic, then he'll help me post the pics of the transplant.  

Day -2 & -1

Day -2 & -1:

This is Karen checking in today. Tony has not had the greatest of experiences these last couple of days. His 2^nd kind of chemo was hard on his sinuses. Sunday evening he started to have bad pressure in his head and it escalated to a 7 out of 10 on the pain scale. Monday saw him with less pain but unable to rest and some nausea. Monday night was restful but Tony started his anti-rejection drugs Tuesday and it has not been pretty. He is getting a drug called Prograf, and in the interest of making everyone feel like they are here – There is a sign as you enter his room telling the nurses “PROGRAF CAN ONLY BE ADMINISTERED THROUGH THE WHITE PORT – IF ADMINISTERED THROUGH ANY OTHER COLOR, THE PORT IS CONTAMINATED FOREVER!” I especially like the emphasis on forever! Basically, this is a drug that needs care. Tony is also getting another drug called ATG and apparently this is the cause of his terrible day!

He is suffering from chills, fever, muscle spasms, pain, nausea... (Right now he has a fever of 102.8 and he has 5 ice packs positioned in various places on his body.) These are all expected side effects, but the fever is worrying.

Tomorrow is DAY 0! As things stand now, nothing going on today will stop the transplant. As I said above, while stinky for Tony, these are all expected side-effects, so GAME ON! We'll post again tomorrow!

Day -5 - 4 and Day -3

Just a update for today. I have competed all 16 doses of the Busulfan and have begun the second regimen of chemo- Cyclophosphamide. This one is a bit more of a doozy and should knock off the remainder of my immune system. Yeah! That is not even the fun part, the fun has to do with over 1040 ml of chemo and fluids that are going through me every hour. I should just set up shop in the bathroom for the next 2 nights. I can't go more that a ½ hour without a pee break. Other than that, I am handling things OK, I get a bit more tired everyday and it takes longer to recover but as I have been saying, if that is the worst of the pre-transplant stuff then I am lucky. Next step-- the transplant!!! (but that's still 3 days away).  

Shower prep for a transplant patient

As you can see everything takes a bit more time. As you might tell showering is a hole lot of fun.