Tues November 4th- Election Day into Wednesday

I leave the hospital in the morning and go to work...
Chris calls me mid-morning to inform me of his continuing diareaha... and that Lew is on his way up to the hospital
Lew is bringing their brother Danny and their dad... Chris hasnt seen his dad in about 10 years...

I take an early lunch to go vote... and I stop home for clothes and run to the hospital to drop them off and meet his dad and Danny
I can tell it has been an emotional few hours

Anyways, they leave.... Lew will be back Wednesday to visit again
I watch Chris and his dad hug and there are tears... then I get leaky

I go back to work and finish out my day. I run home and grab clothes. Chris asked that I stay over at the hospital again ... so I pack
I get to the hospital by 7:20 or so... Christine Rapach and her boyfriend also come to visit
Chris is feeling icky
They leave... Chris's nausia, stomach cramps, etc start up...
I am watching election coverage and Chris is just miserable...
His blood pressure is a little low...
I try to get some sleep.. but I can't really sleep...
He is having pain every hour or so...
He is up to go to the bathroom... poor guy feels lik crap
By 5am or so, he is spiking a fever and blood pressure has dropped and heartrate is up to 150...
I have never seen him so uncomfortable...
He is also vomiting... but not much since he hasnt really eaten in 2 days
He is just very nausious.... they cannot give him pain meds and ativan together when the blood pressure is low...
Its Wednesday morning.. I should get ready for work but I decide to re-group and call work
I am signed into work through my laptop at the hospital... We will see how today goes...
The doctors came in (Dr Harrison is funny and very nice.. its the first time I meet the November doctor) He jokes about aliens and whatnot... (had to be here)
He apologizes for the rough night... but tells us this is completely expected.. its a rough chemo he is getting... he will probably have diareaha and nausia and ab cramps for the next 2 weeks .... so as terrible as it is, so far its quite expected and normal... they agree to give him more delautin... he can sleep through this if he wants.. but they tell him he needs to sit up in a chair whenever possible to avoid bed sores... ugh....
Chris's brother Lew is on his way down with brother Tommy to visit... Chris is really happy that Lew flew up to see him and he wants him here so badly.... but he is quite sleepy...
I told Lew to bring some magazines or movies and just let him know how he is doing

Right now, as of 10:30am Wednesday, his temp has gone down to 99.8 (it was 101.5 earlier)
and his blood pressure is holding steady at around 93/40 give or take a few...
It was 84/36 at one point this morning...
His heartrate is at 136... but was as high as 165 earlier...
So I think the extra fluids they put him on is helping with the blood pressure..
The dilaudid ( i should really find the corrrect spelling of this crazy pain killer med) is making his blood pressure a little lower than it could be, His normal is low (100/70-ish) so this isnt that awful.. but its low
Anyways, his blood counts are in... the white blood cells are very low so he is neurtopenic... and his magnesium and potasium are low.. so they are giving him some... platelets are low so they are giving him a platelet transfusion...
He is getting the neuprogen shots that he always gets after chemo, those help bring the white blood cell counts up...
Speaking of platelets... I think he is going to be needing them often for the next few weeks... It takes 12 days or so after the last day of chemo to recover all the blood counts... sooooo
You figure his chemo starts again tomorrow (thursday) and ends Sunday morning...November 21st is the day he should be feeling better... and I think around November 19th or so, we do the bone marrow biopsy again to see (hope) that the chemo worked so we can move forward quickly into transplant

Back to the platelets... I believe some people have voiced interest in donating ... You do not have to be the same blood type to donate platelets... There is a place right here in the hospital and you can donate specifically to Chris... I keep meaning to look into it, but i forget or get sidetracked... There is only a 5-day shelf life, so I think the blood center helps schedule so he doesnt waste any if he were to get too many donors
From what I understand, its similar to giving blood, except they filter out the platelets and return the rest of your blood to you in your other arm,,, Therefore, unlike regular blood donation, you can give again every 2 weeks.

Here is the info for the Blood Center at Robert Wood in case anyone is interested.. I will post more if I get a chance to call soon
Blood Center 4th Floor, Clinical Academic Building125 Paterson Street New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901 (732) 235-8100