Baxter the Pole

Wow, the days are going by and I haven't done an entry.  Today (Weds. night) I am finally slowing down enough to write.  There has been so much going on.  Today was one long day, but let me back up a little bit.

I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but John is in something called "Contact Isolation".  So when the doctors and nurses come in, they dress up in their "space suits" and gloves, and occassionally masks.  This is because they don't want to get his Cytomegalovirus.  And they wear the masks because they don't want to give him anything.

John is still feeling pain in his abdomen.  The doctors think it is from the Cytomegalovirus (or perhaps another virus).  That is why they did the Upper and Lower GI.  To find out what virus is causing the pain.  On Monday John got the GI but still hasn't gotten the results back.

Before John got the GI he got three bags of platelets because his platelets were too low.  John has named his pole that he is attached to "Baxter".  His last one was named "Freddy".  I asked him why this one was called Baxter, and he said because it said Baxter on the front of the pole.  Pretty sharp he is, LOL!  So at noon on Monday John had two bags of sodium, a bag of vanco (two kill the infection in his chest port), and a bag of platelets hanging off of Baxter.  Then when he was done with his platelets, off to his GI he went.  Unfortunately, John did not go into "twilight" like they had promised him, and he was awake for the whole thing.  

On Tuesday morning Dr. Claxton came in John's room to speak to us.  He said he thought John's main problem with his abdomen was not GVHD, but a virus, probably CMV.  He said the doctors found "inflammation" during the GI.  John could have told him that.  Because he was awake during the procedure, he heard the doctors discussing that they had found some things!  Dr. Claxton told John that he would be on Foscarnet (an antiviral IV) for at least five days to clear up any viruses he had.  He also said that John's counts really concerned him, and that John would probably bein the hospital another seven to ten weeks. 

The next thing that Dr. Claxton said made my heart sink.  He said he had some results from the last bone marrow biopsy.  He said that John's marrow is "thinning".  He said that it was "probably" because of the CMV infection.  He said he didn't "think" that the MDS was coming back.  But it "could" be the MDS coming back.  PROBABLY NOT, but COULD BE.  I guess if the MDS comes back that will mean another transplant.  OKay, so I am not going to jump to conclusions at this time, stay calm Krissy, stay calm.

OKay, so I could go on writing all night what has been going on the past few days.  So I will try to cut this short and just say what is most important.  I guess one of the most important things that has happened, and I don't know if I mentioned this yet, is that they took out John's  chest port (his Hohn).  The infection had been going on so long that the doctor's had to yank it out.  And then today they put in a PICC line.  A PICC line is a different kind of a central line than the Hohn he had in his neck.  But it is very similar.  It has two lumens hanging out of it.  They hang from his arm.  The doctor threaded the line up through his arm and into an artery above his heart.  I know how they did it because they had me in the room watching the whole thing for moral support for John, LOL.  I thought I was going to pass out for awhile there, but I held steady, LOLOLOL.

Okay, I have rambled on enough for now.  I just wanted to say that I am over at Hope Lodge.  And the computer has been fixed again so that is why you are receiving this entry from me in the middle of the night! 

Well, night night everyone, I guess, that's enough gabbin'.  Hope to be back soon.  Pray for me and I'll pray for you.  Krissy :)