Mary Jo Update #23 - Mary Jo's Racing Heart And Our Trip To The ER

Well, everything was going well when I sent the last update earlier today. But, as with any odyssey the twists and turns come unexpectedly and unpredictably.

Mary Jo's dreaded diarrhea had abated somewhat. Everything went well with the BCNU chemo treatment today. She was a little flushed like she was during one of the treatments a few days ago. All the bags of chemo, potassium, hydrate, and other drugs had been disconnected. It was around 2:30pm. Plenty of time to get back to the apartment to watch the Derby.

The nurse practioner was going to let me know if she got the result of Mary Jo's C-diff test. Everything was under control. The only thing left was for Howard, the nurse's assistant, to take Mary Jo's vitals before heading back to the apartment to relax and celebrate the last round of chemo before the transplant.

Well guess what, when Howard took Mary Jo's pulse rate, our odyssey took another turn. Instead of heading to the apartment, we were heading to the Vanderbilt University Hospital emergency room. Mary Jo's heart was in atrial fibrillation. Her pulse rate was 169. Basically, her heart's upper and lower chambers weren't working together as they should.

Mary Jo had never experienced anything like this before, and she had no chest pain or shortness of breath that would indicate a cardiac problem. Dr. Eberhardt, the transport doctor, immediately ordered an electrocardiagram (ECG). Within minutes, a technician was there with the ECG machine. The results confirmed that her heart was out of rythym.

Dr. Eberhardt said that hospital transport was on the way to take Mary Jo from the stem cell center to the emergency room. The main purpose, he said, was to determine whether her heart rate was elevated because of the effect the BCNU chemo had with her electrolytes and potassium depleted, or some problem with her heart.

As I said earlier, Mary Jo had had never experienced any arrhythmia, or any kind of heart problem before, other than high blood pressure. When we got to the ER. We were met by an ER doctor, a cardiologist, and two ER nurses. They ran another ECG, and ordered a chest X-ray. They hooked up a bag of potassium, and gave her some medicine to stabilize her heart rate.

After a couple of hours her heart rate had stabilized at around 110-120 and it looked like they might release her, if things kept trending that way. But she had another episode where her heart rate shot over 180 a few times. The cardiologist came in with the bad news. They were admitting her to the hospital for observation.

The good thing was they were sending her to the oncology floor, and not to the cardiology one. Dr. Eberhardt and the cardiologist had decided that the problem was related to the BCNU's effect on Mary Jo's body while her electrolytes and potassium were low most likely from the severe diarrhea that she had for over 48 hours, which also had diminished her appetite.


So, that's where we are now on the 10th floor of the Vanderbilt Hospital. The nurses in the stem cell center call it the "penthouse", which is a pretty accurate description. The rooms are very nice, and so are the nurses.

This is where they do the autogenoic (donor) stem cell transplants. they can't do them in the outpatient stem cell clinic where they do the autologous transplants. Also, if Medicare patients need any kind of transplant, Medicare requires that they be done in the hospital.

It was right before the start of the Derby when they came to transport Mary Jo from the ER to the oncology floor. The race was over by the time she got settled on the 10th floor. So, I still haven't seen the whole Derby race.

I did see Orb's stretch run a couple of times. Which, I guess was all of the best part of the race. Half of my Exacta box with Goldenscents came in. I just had Orb matched with the wrong Goldensomething. Golden Soul finished second.

They did notify us of one thing about the transplant today. Since her stem cells were collected with several collections over three days.The stem cells from 29 colections are stored in 3 bags. Each bag has a preservative in it, and they don't want to put all of that preservative in her body during a 24 hour period. So, they will be giving her stem cells back to her on Monday and Tuesday.

I asked them, if she would have two re-birthdays then. They said that she could still count Monday, May 6th as her new birthday. Well tomorrow is another day here in Vandy World. If everything continues as it is right now with her hear rate stabilized at around 75-82, we expect to be back in the stem cell center, at some point, tomorrow for her appointment there. I guess we will find out the results of her C-diff test then.  I will write again tomorrow. I am hoping for less excitement.

Please keep praying. No telling what twists and turns lie ahead "On Our Vanderbilt Odyssey." May God bless all of us.

For all those fighting the battle with Breast Cancer and all of the survivors