how John is doing

It's been days since I've done an entry.  That's because I have been working on my computer, which continues to go on and off at will.  I am going to finally store my pics and documents to disc today, if this old thing will allow me, and then try one more fix.  I hope it works!

 

It's not been easy these past couple of weeks.  So what's new with that?  I've kept myself busy though, as I have lots of things to do...  I wanted to get on here and tell you all some things though.  I debated about whether or not to tell you all this, but since my husband mentioned it in his blog, I am going to go ahead and mention it.       

 

Okay, I'll cut to the chase.  Don't panic (ya, right), but John is having some health problems right now.  You all know that he had two cancers (Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma and bone marrow cancer), both which are being held in remission by his bone marrow transplant.  Well, for a couple of weeks John had no immunities.  His regular oncologist, Dr. Claxton, was on vacation, and the oncologist subbing is concerned John's cancer is back (indicated by the fact that John keeps having no immune system this late after his bone marrow transplant).  Dr. Claxton's nurse, Mitzi, has also been on vacation.  When she got back, she told John she didn't think his cancer was back, and that Dr. Claxton hadn't mentioned it to her.

 

So now we wait and see.  Mitzi says it is highly unlikely, though.  I am sure she or Dr. Claxton don't want to commit 100% until after he examines John.  John has an appointment on July 28.  That is Monday after tomorrow.  We leave on this Sunday coming up (July 27).  

 

Anyway, it's been a little rough because answers were changing daily, different doctors saying different things, and one night a few nights ago John got a significant fever.  The sub doctor told usto get him to Hershey Medical Center (the facility where John got his bone marrow transplant) immediately, and have him admitted.

 

He told us what sounded to us like horror stories (like he thought John's cancer was back, that he had a bad infection that could kill him, etc), but then Mitzi corrected what he said the next day, or what she thinks is true about John anyway, and his situation. 

 

Anyway, fortunately, John's temperature dropped to normal.  Because there were no beds available, and John would have waited in two ERs (local and Hershey), for up to 24 hours, before he was up in a hospital bed at Hershey.

 

John did end up getting a Neulasta shot a few days later, to raise his immunities, so he wouldn't get any infections that could kill him.  So now he has a high immune system.  But while they did that, they found kind of bad kidney damage.  He only had 25 to 30% to start with, and now it is worse.  Now Dr. Claxton needs to explore what is causing that.

 

Hopefully the kidney's lack of partial functioning won't cause dialysis soon.

 

It is strange to see.  A man walking around normally, doing every day things, not far from dialysis, perhaps?  Could that even be possible?  We just got some info. back in the mail we needed to join the YMCA.  He was going to do regular exercise.  He doesn't appear that weak.

 

Well, anyway, we will find out more about it when he goes to the oncologist on July 28.  John's oncologist, Dr. Claxton, will be checking out his kidneys, as opposed to the nephrologist (kidney doctor) on that date, as it was John's bone marrow transplant that hurt his kidneys in the first place.  Actually it wasn't the actual transplant that hurt his kidneys.  John's kidney problems were caused by a medicine he was taking after the transplant to make sure the bone marrow transplant worked, or the kidney problems may have been caused by some mismatched blood blood that was given to him after the bone marrow transplant. 

 

So I am not panicking or anything, just telling you all what is going on, in case my computer shuts down soon, and it takes me a short while to get another one.  I just wanted you to know.  I am kind of taking this all in stride, as we don't have any definite information yet, and why be upset if we don't know for sure?

 

If I were to get freaked out every time they said John might be having a relapse I would constantly be freaked out.  I just can't do it.  I need to remain stable.  It would drive me nuts.  

 

The kidney part is harder to deal with.  I don't want to see him on dialysis.  I won't tell you why.  Because he may not have to go on it.  We'll save that for if he really has to go on it.  For now let's remain positive! 

 

Time to go get back to work!  

 

Love you all, and I hope you are having a good weekend,

 

Krissy :) 

Tags: bone marrow transplant, stem cell transplant, cancer, remission, don't jump to conclusions, kidney damage, dialysis, computer problems, blogplugs