Hospital Days 5-7
There isn't actually a ton to report from the last few days. Since my last post on Sunday, I've just been going through the daily, fairly boring routine of living in the hospital. I had three more chemo infusions on Monday, and one more (my last one) yesterday. The side effects haven't been too bad so far - I've been getting pretty tired in the afternoon and evening each day, I feel kind of crappy, and my brain is a little bit "mushy," but so far that's it. I'd say it has been pretty comparable to the other two chemo regiments I've done in the past - CHOP-R and GDP-R. I know it's going to probably get worse soon though, because my blood counts are falling more and more each day. It is kind of weird just waiting for something to happen, but still feeling "OK" right now.
In terms of staying active and moving, I have been doing very well. As I mentioned in my last post, I measured out how many times around the ward I need to walk to do a kilometre, and I have been tracking my progress diligently, aiming for about 5 km per day. As of tonight, I have walked 31.5 km in that same damn circle, which is 252 laps. I know my body will start slowing down in the coming days and weeks, but I'll see if I can get up to 50 km before I'm eventually discharged.
I have to say a HUGE thank-you again to everyone - family and friends - who have been coming to keep me company and bring me real food. Since the weekend, I have had so many people drop by to visit, and I don't think I am exaggerating to say that it has been life-saving. Maintaining my sanity and positive outlook would be next to impossible if I was alone the whole time, so thank-you all for your love, support, smiles, stories, company, time, homemade meals, and everything else you've given me. I sure am one lucky guy, and you are all the reason that I am still smiling. Thank-you. Thank-you. Thank-you. Here are a few pictures. I forgot to snap them with Christina, Katherin, Jean, and Sara, but that just means you will all need to come back a second time!
Stem Cell Transplant
Today was the big day - the whole reason I am here - I had my stem cell transplant this afternoon! Okay, okay, it was actually not that eventful, but still pretty important. Here's what happened:Starting this morning I was given two IV infusions of a steroid as I went about my business. Then at 2:00 PM I was given a large IV dose of Benadryl. The stem cells are mixed with a preservative, and there is a slight chance that the preservative can cause a severe allergic reaction so those infusions were as a precautionary measure.
At 2:30 PM I had to lie in my bed for the transplant. My frozen stem cells were thawed down the hall, and then brought quickly into the room and hung from my IV pole. My nurse and doctor were present the entire time to monitor me, and my blood pressure, blood-oxygen, and temperature were taken every few minutes. As the stem cells went into me I felt a bit of a warm flush in my face and chest, but it was mild. I also felt the slightest bit nauseated but not enough to mention it. The whole thing took about 45 minutes, but I fell asleep after about 10 minutes because of the huge dose of Benadryl.
After the stem cell infusion was complete, the nurse woke me up to check my vitals every 15 minutes for two hours - again, as a precautionary measure.
I am currently still pretty "out of it" due to the Benadryl, but between sleeping and getting my transplant, I had a nice visit and supper with my sister Jean and her friend Sara who were here the whole afternoon.
So that is that! I literally just had a bag of my very own pre-harvested stem cells infused back into my body! A pretty simple process for an amazingly complicated procedure. The doctor told me that there were approximately 600 MILLION stem cells in the bag, and they will go through my bloodstream and "find their way" back to my bone marrow where they will turn into new cells and essentially reset my system to one that hopefully doesn't make any more cancer. The craziest thing is that science still doesn't have a 100% understanding of how the whole process actually works... they just know it can!
Now the waiting game begins. The next week or so is when the cumulative effects of 6 days worth of chemo will really start to wreck me. I will get very tired and very sick. My blood counts will drop to the point where I will need transfusions, and there is a high chance that I will get an infection of some sort, and require IV antibiotics. But in 2-3 weeks the whole process should be over, and I will be able to be discharged.
Two weeks from today is Christmas Eve. Let's aim for that?
Thanks for reading,
Christopher
Congrats, Chris! May those 600 million stem cells work their magic... in the meantime, rest up and kick cancer's @$$!
ReplyDelete-Sabrina
Congratulations on your re-birthday!! I hope the transpant was successful and that you recuperate enough to enjoy the holidays!! Your positive attitude is so inspiring to those of us that have battled the lymphoma dragon ( or any cancer for that matter). Thank you for documenting your journey :)
ReplyDeleteLilly
I'll be thinking if you, especially on Christmas Eve!
ReplyDeleteGood luck - Sounds like so far so good. As I used to tell my heme patients, be extremely anal with any symptoms you have now that your immune system is shot from the chemo. Tell the doctors about everything, and find people to bring you meals. Somehow the hospital food still stinks, and during my rotation, I tended to accumulate and spread Booster Juice coupons and drinks with extra protein for everyone without an appetite and that seemed to be the magic trick. Oh And there's this ice cream called Magic something, it's supremely good and filled with protein. (well 9-10grams). I tended to recommend crap like Tim Hortin's muffins also, as it gets you compact energy and fat while not needing to eat/drink too much (far more calories than Boost or Ensure). I don't think the nutritionists saw eye to eye with me, but hey a calorie is a calorie.
ReplyDeleteHmm what other advice... Avoid any cuts. Any ingrown nails, nail biting, ingrown hairs. AKA don't shave anything. The smallest of stupid things as you're getting told can develop into infectious requiring triple antibiotics. Regardless of filters in the hospital vents, fungal infections happen very frequently too. Aspergillosis being surprisingly common and a very tough diagnosis to make and hard to test. Certain antibiotics make a false positive for its blood test as well. They'll have a protocol as a stepwise effect for antibiotics then anti fungal, but aspergillosis seems to be only moderately covered in these algorithms and seemed to always get diagnosed very late in the game. Information is power, so if 2 antibiotics aren't cutting it, and an anti fungal isn't cutting it, mention aspergillosis to them as they may need to go broader with their anti fungal to cover aspergillosis. And... lastly, the rare person would require the anti-fungal which has the nickname "Ampho-terrible" due to it's many side effects and potential harms. Push the doctors to spend the bucks to the amplified, far far easier to handle and fewer complications medication called Liposomal amphotericin B. It's the same as ampho-terrible, but not terrible. It's usually reserved for those who've had terrible side effects with ampho-terrible. No need for that with you right! (why don't they start with it for most people? Because it costs 10 times the price as amphi-terrible). I think you're worth 10 times the price right off the bat correct!?
If your mind is foggy, get your wife to note down if any of this is new information for you. Just in case right? Best to be prepared and informed. And hey, you're doing better than literally any patient I had - Good lord you walk and bike a lot. You're not technically supposed to get even more fit while hospitalized ;)
Take care,
Brian Nadler