Day 102 I would like to start by saying a belated but heartfelt thank yous to Shannon McIvor and all the Scotch Guard volunteers, Sandy Bailey and Claudia Hawkins and other volunteers in the engineering department who made flyers, posted flyers, blew up balloons, and provided extension cords when the blood pressure machine went down and the engineering grad student that generously made copies for the tech team. We keep hearing about everything everyone did at the Blood Drive and can't say thank you enough. You guys did awesome!
Sorry we missed an update, but yesterday was exceptionally uneventful. The highlight of the day was me going to blockbuster to rent
The Devil Wears Prada for Ann to kill the boredom. Well that and laundry, but I suspect that the majority of people who read this blog don't do so to read about adventures in domestic house work.
Today one new and not so welcome thing has developed. Ann has begun to get a very swollen stomach, which freaked me out at first because it was one of her first symptoms (Splenomegaly - swollen, enlarged spleen). It got so bad just before she was diagnosed that the her spleen actually compressed her stomach between it and her ribs. It drastically reduced the amount of food she could eat, to the point which a mouthful or two would make her feel like she had seconds at Thanksgiving.
So this latest "new" swelling has alarmed me. Splenomegaly was one of the first symptoms she had so it stands to reason that it might be one of the first to return on a relapse. Tomorrow when we go to MDA for appointments we'll ask about seeing a gastroenterologist, but I'm pretty sure I have figured out the cause. he cells on the inner lining of her stomach and intestine are very susceptible to chemo, so I believe that she is having problems digesting food. I tried Milk of Magnesia, Fiber Supplements (powdered and solid) and finally Ice Cream (Ann is lactose intolerant) before Ann got some relief.
Tomorrow we have our first meeting with the transplant Doctor since the approval. We are of course anxious to hear is Ann can go into transplant soon. The preparations for that will take some time, plus the stem cell clinic has to work out a timetable with the leukemia clinic which has Ann on a 21 day cycle for chemo. Tomorrow would be day 21 and theoretically the start of round 6. Will they let Ann slide a few days and go into transplant or will they make her go through round 6?
Considering that they have only known for a week that she was approved, the earliest they could do a transplant would be the April 30th. If we have to wait until round 6 is over then the soonest they could do it would be May 15th (give or take). Of course a lot of this depends on where the cords come from. If they come from the US they could be here very soon. However, if they come from Taiwan, Vietnam, China or Hong Kong (all have large cord banking programs) then it could take a few days longer. I should point out that MDA knows exactly where the cords are coming from, but because of confidentiality laws/rules Ann and I don't get to.
We will let everyone know tomorrow whats going on. Night everyone.
I would like to start by saying a belated but heartfelt thank yous to Shannon McIvor and all the Scotch Guard volunteers, Sandy Bailey and Claudia Hawkins and other volunteers in the engineering department who made flyers, posted flyers, blew up balloons, and provided extension cords when the blood pressure machine went down and the engineering grad student that generously made copies for the tech team. We keep hearing about everything everyone did at the Blood Drive and can't say thank you enough. You guys did awesome!
Sorry we missed an update, but yesterday was exceptionally uneventful. The highlight of the day was me going to blockbuster to rent The Devil Wears Prada for Ann to kill the boredom. Well that and laundry, but I suspect that the majority of people who read this blog don't do so to read about adventures in domestic house work.
Today one new and not so welcome thing has developed. Ann has begun to get a very swollen stomach, which freaked me out at first because it was one of her first symptoms (Splenomegaly - swollen, enlarged spleen). It got so bad just before she was diagnosed that the her spleen actually compressed her stomach between it and her ribs. It drastically reduced the amount of food she could eat, to the point which a mouthful or two would make her feel like she had seconds at Thanksgiving.
So this latest "new" swelling has alarmed me. Splenomegaly was one of the first symptoms she had so it stands to reason that it might be one of the first to return on a relapse. Tomorrow when we go to MDA for appointments we'll ask about seeing a gastroenterologist, but I'm pretty sure I have figured out the cause. he cells on the inner lining of her stomach and intestine are very susceptible to chemo, so I believe that she is having problems digesting food. I tried Milk of Magnesia, Fiber Supplements (powdered and solid) and finally Ice Cream (Ann is lactose intolerant) before Ann got some relief.
Tomorrow we have our first meeting with the transplant Doctor since the approval. We are of course anxious to hear is Ann can go into transplant soon. The preparations for that will take some time, plus the stem cell clinic has to work out a timetable with the leukemia clinic which has Ann on a 21 day cycle for chemo. Tomorrow would be day 21 and theoretically the start of round 6. Will they let Ann slide a few days and go into transplant or will they make her go through round 6?
Considering that they have only known for a week that she was approved, the earliest they could do a transplant would be the April 30th. If we have to wait until round 6 is over then the soonest they could do it would be May 15th (give or take). Of course a lot of this depends on where the cords come from. If they come from the US they could be here very soon. However, if they come from Taiwan, Vietnam, China or Hong Kong (all have large cord banking programs) then it could take a few days longer. I should point out that MDA knows exactly where the cords are coming from, but because of confidentiality laws/rules Ann and I don't get to.
We will let everyone know tomorrow whats going on. Night everyone.