I haven't felt like writing or doing much of anything lately so Janine is updating here for a while:
Robert has been in hospital at MD Anderson since Wednesday afternoon. He is now a participant in a clinical research study. He is receiving two types of chemo; one by IV once a day for 5 days and another by injection twice a day for 7 days. He is losing his appetite already, has experienced the nausea feeling, and generally does not feel good. His blood counts continue to drop. All of this is expected side effects of the treatments. The first 24 hours in the hospital were pretty hectic and he didn’t get much sleep. Friday was calmer and he slept on and off most of the day. Saturday morning was a bit rough but he is feeling a tad bit better this afternoon. He even felt like taking a shower! I had to go to a training class on “Central Venous Catheter Dressing Change” this morning. Each caregiver is required to go to the class twice and then demonstrate to the Infusion Therapy team that I can do the flush and dressing change. This will be interesting! Robert does have an infection in his big toe from an ingrown toenail that has been treated by the MD Anderson podiatrist. It is looking a little better but with his low low white blood cell count, it is of concern. We were told he would be in the hospital from 7-10 days then would be out-patient for another week.
On Tuesday, Robert, Sarah and I met with the Stem Cell Transplantation team. We were all very impressed. We are proceeding with the plan for Robert to have a bone marrow transplant once a suitable donor match has been found. His siblings will be the first to be typed for a match; if neither of them are a match, the National Bone Marrow registry will be explored for a match.
There will be a lot more bad days before there are good days. MD Anderson Hospital is a wonderful place. Everyone has been so nice. Have a feeling we are going to get to know a lot of the folks really well.
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