Today is Friday August 28, 2015. Today is day 1,post transplant for my husband. Yesterday Bob had a stem cell transplant. I do not pretend to understand how this all works. However I do know that God created our bodies, in their complexity, and how mere men are learning to use our bodies for good is very amazing. Bob's stem cells waited for six years to be put back into his body. The nurses who were part of the process are all young. None of them had seen the "old" bags in which they were frozen. None of them had given cells that were that old. How fast the world we live in changes.
Bob's transplant is an autologous transplant because the stem cells were taken from his own body. Now that they have been returned these baby cells will find their way into the bone marrow. where I believe they will engraft and become red and white cells and platelets---unbelievable. They will change from the immature cells to mature cells before entering the blood. Bob had the chemo drug malfalin that will lower the blood counts. We go back to the hospital on Mon.( Aug.30) morning for 8:30am which will be day 4 post transplant. This is when the blood will be checked to see what the counts are becoming. Bob will also receive velcade which is a chemo drug that will kill any cancer cells that may have tagged along with the stem cells. On day 7 and daily until the blood counts recover Bob will be given a hormone. The hormone is to help the stem cells grow and help recover the red and white blood cells and platelets in his blood. The thinking is: that by day 14 the recovery should be well on it's way.
That part went reasonably well, thank you Lord, the hard part is in the weeks and maybe months ahead. We learn as we go and I am realizing I am glad we didn't know the details of this part of the journey.
A huge challenge is going to be getting high protein, high calorie food into my guy. With the gut not having the luxury of the ice it is affected by the malfalin. We were told to expect vomiting to begin this weekend. Thankfully the 3 different types of anti nausea meds, we have, seem to have kept that under control. However the lower parts of the digestive tract are creating a different problem which means that at this point no senakot.
Once the blood counts are low he will be required to stay in hospital----I think. The risk of infection is very high then. Infection is the killer. Therefore he has: mouth care, skin care, exercises to do plus short walks. I need to be taking his temp every four hours and strict guidelines as to when we boot it back to the hospital. We still have the CVC line to watch and care for-----I don't do the flushing --- whew. Bob is still on blood thinners. He needs to monitor his blood sugar. We are now using a sliding scale as to the amount of insulin to give.
Bob has no appetite and has only eaten very small amounts of food. I know that the weight is a huge issue as Bob will not be discharged until weight loss stops.
He is very tired, sleeps lots---of course the hospital is not a place to rest. Bob has only been home since noon but it seems so busy making sure we do everything and at the appropriate times.
We have two nurse friends in our building who would be willing to help us should we be in a frenzy. Sharon, bless her, checks on us each day, by text, which is reassuring.
We certainly are fearfully and wonderfully made.
Pray Bob will recover well, not be overwhelmed or despondent. Pray that he could be infection free. Pray I will do this with calmness, love and a cheerful spirit.
Well it is now Day 2 post transplant and Bob is back in the hospital. As I was typing up this blog, Bob was tucked into bed. When he called me I thought for sure the nausea was going to start!!! However he was soaking wet with perspiration. His t shirt, the sheets all wet through. He was not making a lot of sense either. I phoned the transplant unit and I was told to bring him back into the hospital. Fortunately Barbie drove us to the hospital. Being the young one she ran to get a wheelchair. Bob was having a hard time walking. We got to the ward, the nurses are so incredible. He had blood tests done asap along with a blood sugar test. His blood sugar showed 2.9 yikes!!!! At suppertime it had been 10 so he took the insulin plus the metforman as per our directions. All of the symptoms could be explained by that blood sugar. However, he is staying the rest of the night and the night owl nurses will watch over him. They plan to check for any infections as well.
There is a lot going on in Bob's body. Trusting him to the Lord...............and the nurses.
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