Birthday--Plus Eight

Today marks the 8th day since Sandi had her stem cell transplant and the last 48 hours have not been kind to her. Early yesterday morning they suddenly had to give her a blood transfusion of 2 units of blood as well as 2 units of platelets. They started all this before she even had breakfast yesterday morning so the premeds on an empty stomach made her sleep and then she was nauseated when she woke up while they were putting the blood into her. She felt pretty lousy all day and thought she would feel better this morning.

Instead, today was much worse. She woke up before dawn with a raging sore throat that made it nearly impossible to swallow and body aches all over. She describes it as the throat is worse than any strep throat she ever had and is coupled with feeling like the worst case of flu ever. Her right arm is extremely painful to her and is interfering with her crocheting or being online very much. Everyone in the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit seems to be thrilled with her feeling so bad as they have been waiting for this to happen. This is supposed to be normal and more proof that, so far, things are working like they are supposed to do at this point.

How long this will last is unknown at this point as this could last just a couple of days or go a week or more. Obviously, she would prefer the former and wants to feel like she did early last week when for a few blessed days she felt like she did when she was well pre--cancer from before I got sick.

Hopefully, tomorrow evening I will have better news.....

Sandi's Room

Sandi is doing okay as the day winds down over in Florida. This was her second day of chemo and she has five more to do. The pictures below are of  the view from her room.....

which is of the water and construction materials....

and the nearby helipad. Unlike at Medical City she has not yet witnessed a medical transport land.

While she is in the unit the door to the room has to stay closed at all times for the filtration systems to work properly. So, at least she can see the above when she looks outside. Her room on the inside. This picture and all the rest were taken by her before they hooked up all the cardiac monitoring stuff and started her chemo yesterday....

and the doorway area.....

and back to her window view with a chemo hat under construction and yarn sitting on the nearby table. 

I remain amazed at her continuing strength to go through all this again. I truly could not deal with this as I have to be able to get outside at least a little bit everyday as anyone who ever worked me and actually got to know me knows very well. I'm just too claustrophobic to stay cooped up inside all day everyday with nothing but the window to look out of at the world. She has three weeks of this.

Sandi Update---The Evening Before Admission to the BMT Unit at Mayo

Talked to her this evening and she is very tired, but in good spirits. Her plan was to eat at the hotel restaurant and then wander around a little bit to enjoy her final night of freedom outside. As usual, I told her to be careful and not overdue as I worry.

Everything is setup for her admission tomorrow morning into Mayo to start the three week stem cell transplant procedure. First up is chemo for six days around the clock as they try to make sure the cancer is deep into remission before thy kill her immune system and give her back her modified stem cells. This means it won't be until early next week before she starts getting her own stem cells back. This assumes there are no glitches or hangups that slow things down.

It is fantastic that things have not changed and she is still going to get her own modified stem cells back as that cuts the chances of her body rejecting them way down. It also means that she won't be in quite as restrictive quarantine as would otherwise happen. For one thing, she can have her dwindling supply of yarn with her so she can continue to crochet. She is very happy for that as being able to crochet is what is keeping her sane.

So, things are set up and now we wait and see how it goes. Sandi wanted me to make sure that I mention how very grateful she, as well as all the rest of us, are for your continued thoughts and prayers on our behalf. She wanted me to make sure everyone knows that she has not given up and won't and very much hopes to be back home in Texas where she belongs in six weeks.