Sept 10th to October 2 (Post 3rd Round of Chemo)

Ok... we've been through post-chemo 2 times now. We should know what we are in for.
After the whole blood clot situation of June, doctors decided to put Chris on Lovenox (blood thinner injections) when he is not low on platelets or having surgery)
Guess who volunteers to give him these injections? Me!! I do not think I mentioned that before... but i started that in early July when he first went home. I actually am ok with it.. and Chris prefers it to giving it to himself in the belly
Those are twice a day. However, when his platelets are low after chemo, they pause. And when he is having surgery they pause.
When he came home from Chemo 2, I was giving him neuprogin shots for 10 days. They help the white blood cells build. 3 shots a day-- not fun. So, now after Chemo 3, I am giving him neuprogin again.
September 10 and 11 he is feeling pretty decent. Sept 12th, we go in for bloodwork, counts are ok... platelets are low, so they give him a transfusion, and they make him sick. Throws up.. feels awful.. so they do not do that 2nd spinal tap I talked about in a previous post.
Sept 15th, he goes back in for standard bloodwork.. counts are pretty low (neutropenic) and they give him platelets again. After that, his platelets are still not high enough for a spinal tap. So they send him home. Sept 16th we have a doctors appointment,. We schedule bloodwork for every other day. My mom finds out there is a chicken pox outbreak at her work (daycare)-- so it freaks her out cus she doesnt think she ever had chicken pox.. although her bloodwork shows an immunity. Chris has never gotten them! Ugh.... We find out there is an exact match donor for Chris for the bone marrow transplant! And, we have to schedule for a bone marrow transplant class. It is required. Counts will be going up and he will have the finger surgery soon so we can get it out of the way before the transplant. Sept 18th and Sept 20th are more bloodwork and no transfusions are needed. Sept 24th, Chris's elbow is acting up with tendinitis again... doc prescribes meds. The next day, his elbow is worse. I take him to the doctor to get a cortizone shot which Dr Strair says he can do. Elbow gets better. On Friday Sept 26th, he wakes up with ankle pain shooting up his calf almost like a cramp and up to his hip. I am already at work , so my dad takes him to the doctor (they want to see him)
He gets morphine.. spends the whole late morning and afternoon there. They let him go home. This was my dad's last day of disability. I thank God my dad was around for all these months to help take chris to appointments. I get to the same-day suite and Chris looks so drained. We get to go home though. He is instructed to call if it gets worse. They think he might have a blood clot that was pressing on the nerve or muscle. He gets better a little more each day that weekend. Oh, and it was time that morning to go back on the Lovenox injection.. so we start that, and Doctor feels it would help if there was a blood clot. Sunday, I have lil Ben's Christening. Chris is just not up to par.. he needs to stay in bed... and my dad stays home with him. Dad is going back to work the next day after 6 months of disability and wasnt feeling great either. I go with my mom to the baptism and Chris rests...
October 1st, we have bone marrow transplant class. My mom comes... its a few nurses (including Jackie) and us. I needed my mom to come.. I need someone else in the hosuehold to hear first-hand how serious a lot of these things are. Everything from sanitizing the house, throwing out leftovers pretty quickly, cat scratch prevention, no plants in the house, etc...
and all the possible complications during and after the transplant... craziness...
I will tell you more about that later
October 2nd, Chris has surgery to remove the pseudo tumor on the finger and we are awaiting the transplant... The surgery goes well... Doctor has to remove a nerve that the tumor was wrapped around.. and he will have no feeling on one side of his finger, but its ok. He is ok with it.

Chemo Round 3 Sept 3rd-Sept 9th

Sept 3rd. They do bloodwork and get the central line put in his arm, but do not start chemo because they are concerned he might have a sinus infection, so they do a catscan. All looks fine, so they say they will start chemo. A fellow of Dr Strair's comes to see him... and we discover that there is a totally different plan for this round of chemo. Chris is pretty surprised because no one informed us prior that there would be 2 spinal taps involved. Thats a lot to take in when you are expecting bags of chemo going in with IV... and nothing else. So, its some more citarabine... I should really remember the spelling. And some methatrxate (which is green liquid)-- there is an initial bag and then a 24 hour bag they start. They have to interupt the 24-hour bag to take him down to MRI.
Remember back in early August (before Lew's visit) they had admitted him when his counts were low. They wanted to do MRIs back then... then they decided it could wait a couple weeks. Yea, well, on August 25th, we got a call from MRI asking where Chris was. Apparently they scheduled it for August 25th and never told him. We were still waiting for a call .. They ALWAYS call the day before about all procedures and surgeries and scans. I wanted to kill this woman.. could barely understand her and swore she called him twice and mailed something. All of a sudden on the 25th, she couldnt reach him when he didnt show up and find my number.. Likely story. Ugh...
Anyways, they had rescheduled the MRIs with anastesia for September 5th, and now he is in-patient getting chemo.
So... they interupt the 24-hour bag and take him down to MRI. I go home for a few hours to get some stuff and i get back by 10pm.. he was supposed to be done by 9:30. He didnt get upstairs til 11 :( they had to put him all the way under (intibate). Poor Chris had a sore throat for a few days. Anyways... chemo continues and the first spinal is done the next day Sat Sept 6. (this is actually his 2nd spinal, cus he had one in June)
This spinal is done bedside by a fellow and another doctor. They numb you, have you bent over the hospital tray. They poke and get spinal fluid. Then after they retrieve fluid to test, they put some chemo in. Doesnt sound pleasant.
Sept 7th is his last day of chemo. He cannot go home yet because they have to test blood for certain levels.. make sure the green methotrexate chemo is out of his system. Sept 9th he is discharged. He will have to come back in 5 days or so for a 2nd spinal which is pretty typical with this course of chemo. But it will be outpatient

Recovering From Chemo Round 2... other complications

Ok... so Chris is getting better bloodwork-wise. We have a few weeks before Chemo Round 3... but we have to get that finger resolved,,, you know about the finger? or no? Chris had a little tiny bump on his left middle finger for years...

After the first round of chemo it started getting bigger. And then it got bigger and bigger.. literally 3 times the size of his finger. It looked painful and it was painful..

Dr Partridge saw him in the hospital and was ready to biopsy it as soon as his counts were up after Chemo Round 2. After counts start going back up, Chris has terrible tendinitis pain one day. - August 15th to be exact. We go to see Jackie (Dr Strair's right hand woman- Nurse- Bone Marrow Coordinator). They talk to him about admitting him... but it could take days to get MRI scheduled. He does not want to spend the weekend in the hospital just waiting for tests. He gets a quick x-ray. Nothing looks bad... he is better in a day or so. So, Chris has the biopsy done of his finger on August 20th. It comes back non-cancer-- its a pseudo tumor.

Now we have some time to chill at home before Round 3 of chemo starts. Dr Strair calls before Labor Day weekend but they were getting final pathology on the finger biopsy and waiting for rooms to be available.. so We get to stay home for Labor Day weekend.. we go back to the hospital September 3rd. I am attaching photos of his finger that will have to be fixed after Chemo Round 3