Transplant Day -6

Well I finally made it to my room tonight! I guess I should explain the title of the blog before I do anything else. They number things here by the day of the transplant. It is considered day 0. Today is 6 days before the transplant so it is day -6.

Now my story of admission. They told me to come at noon and have lab work and then go to Xray at 1pm or whenever I was done at the lab. I got here at noon and had my lab work done and went to Xray at 10 minutes to 1pm ( I was actually early!). We waited for an hour and a half and Teresa had noticed a sign that said to check with the desk if we waited more than 45 minutes. When she checked, she found out that they had forgotten to put in the computer that I was here! Xray had been looking for me and had called my doctor to see if I had canceled! I finally got back to the rooms for the test and the radiologist wanted to know why they were taking out my old IV when it was still working! I told them it was not my decision, perhaps they should check with my doctor. After checking, they decided to go ahead. The procedure went well and I was done at about 3:40.

We then went over to admissions. I signed in at 3:50. They told us there were no open rooms and it would be a while. I was hungry as I had not eaten anything all day. We got something to eat at the cafeteria and went back to admissions. The TV was showing the movie "Remember the Titans". We got to see all of it and it started a second time when at 8PM they told us admitting was closing but they still had no room! We were sent to the family room on the floor where I was to be admitted until my room was ready. By this time it was 9PM and the cafeteria was closed and if I wanted something to eat I would have to get something out of their pantry. I wound up with a bowl of soup.

I should mention that my shingles were a lot better today. I could almost see normally out of my eye and the pain was less then yesterday. I missed two doses of my medication, though, while waiting to be admitted. I did not bring my medicines from home as I thought I would be admitted and would not need them! I hope I do not have a setback because of that.

As of this writing at 10:40 PM I still have not had any of my chemo, my antibiotics or my home meds. They will hopefully start soon. I do not expect to get much sleep as the chemo takes two hours to run in and the antibiotic takes four. I do not know if they have anything else I need to get IV but that will take me till sunrise. They say a hospital is not the place to get rest and at least for today, that will be correct! Hopefully we are getting all the bugs worked out early in my stay so that the rest will go smoother. I sure wish I could have done this at Passavant! I surely would not have waited so long and would not have been lost in Xray! There is nothing like a hometown hospital!!!

Hopefully I will have a better day tomorrow and will have more to say. They did tell me today that the stem cell infusion(or transplant) only takes about a half an hour or so to run in. It depends somewhat on how much they got from the donor and how thick it is.

The present information to reach me is posted again on the right side, under the picture of Ian and I.

I want to again thank you all for your prayers and comments and get well wishes. It is still humbling to me to realize how many people are pulling for me to get better. God has His plan and it will play out over the next several weeks. In the meantime, I pray that He blesses you as He blesses me!

Doc