02/14/2011

We arrived in Salt Lake last night. We both had a terrible night. We called the on-call oncologist last night to get an increase in pain medication. It didn't really touch Jeremie at all. So no sleep.

We arrived for the pulmonary function test (tests lung function, chemo and radiation affect lung function, need to make sure they aren't in bad shape before we go into transplant). Jeremie was in too much pain to take deep breaths, and we didn't want to "fail" the test. We decided to skip the test and go straight to the BMT (Bone Marrow Transplant) Clinic.

They asked if Jeremie would want to be admitted before Thursday. I of course said "Please! Please! Please!". Jeremie was admitted :-) Put on a different type of pain medication and pump. Pain has definitely decreased to more manageable levels. He was started on the medication to increase epithelial cells along the digestive tract. As these cells are the most susceptible to ulcerations during radiation and chemotherapy causing terrible problems. Usually this medication is given once a day for three days. They are taking the combined dose of those three days and splitting it to give it over two days instead. They are moving his radiation/chemotherapy/transplant date up by one day. It looks like 02/24/2011 is our day for transplant.

And of course we got to go over all the lovely potential problems that can pop up with transplant. That alone just makes you want to run and hide. It definitely isn't morale boosting. Sometimes I am bit nervous that Jeremie is going to change his mind. And of course they throw out "you have until we start radiation to change you mind". That just makes you feel great...NOT. We can't say they didn't warn us.

I guess I think of it a bit differently, than just plain statistical odds. If you think about it, Jeremie and I had Alex as teenagers, were married as teenagers and we are still married (happily), that is super rare! So we are already a statistical oddity. I just say take your statistics and... well you know ;-) 

Love to all,

Cori