Some great news when I arrived at the hospital today. It's Day +8, and the stem cells are moving. The overnight vitals indicated that Mary Jo's WBC went from .1 to .3. As I said yesterday, we are encouraged, even by the smallest signs of progress giving us rays of hope.
A .2 change is very small. But, the significance is huge. It is a sign that the stem cells are moving. Natalie, Mary Jo's nurse, said that many times the WBC may actually fall back some after upward movement starts. But, the important thing is that they are moving.
Normally, the stem cell movement doesn't happen until Day +10 to Day+14. I think this may be an indication that the daily Neupogen shots that Mary Jo has been receiving since the transplant are doing their job.
At this morning's meeting with Dr. Engelhardt and the transplant team, he told us that, barring unforeseen circumstance, Mary Jo should be discharged from the hospital tomorrow afternoon.
Mary Jo said that she got a good night's sleep for a change last night. She must have had a stealth nurse. Mary Jo said that the nurse didn't wake her after her vitals were taken at midnight. Natalie said that she didn't want to wake her up just to give her the good news.
Even the mouth sores seem to be improving. After her severe stomach cramps had stopped, they left the morphine pump attached to her IV stand to use if the pain from swallowing became too bad. Mary Jo had used the pump very little, and not all yesterday. So, they have removed the pump. That will make pushing the IV stand around easier when we take our laps around the stem cell center.
They are also giving her hydration from only one line now, instead of two. So with that and the morphine pump being removed, she only has to deal with one line connected from the IV stand to her catheter. It sounds like a little thing, but it has helped her mobility quite a bit.
This will be Mary Jo's 11th night in the hospital. It will be good to have her back at the apartment again. As I have said before, I think that it was a good thing that Mary Jo has been in the hospital. Especially, while she was experiencing all of those harsh side effects from the chemo. At least, she was here where they could respond quickly to whatever change had happened.
When Mary Jo is discharged, we will go back to making daily visits to the outpatient stem cell clinic for blood labs and blood product infusions, if they are needed.
When I got in my car last night in the hospital's Central Parking Garage these items were on my windshield. You know that you are spending too much time at the hospital when the Vanderbilt police officers patrolling the parking garage see your car there so much, and for such long periods of time that they figure you must be a faculty member, staff, student, vendor, or a construction worker parking in an area where you're not supposed to.
I called the parking office this morning about my warning citation. They put my license number in their database. So, I shouldn't get any more presents on my windshield. It would seem like to me that it would be a good idea if they gave long term patients, like us, some kind of sticker, or something that would identify the
car, as such.
Rita, Mary Jo's, nurse for today, said that the stem cell center used to have patients call the parking office to have their license numbers entered into the database to prevent this from happening. But, the parking office told them that this was no longer necessary. Go figure!
Once again, thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers. They seem to be working.
I have had a few requests for our mailing address here in Nashville. So, here it is:
105 Village at Vanderbilt
Nashville, TN 37212
We still anticipate being here until early June.
No comments:
Post a Comment