Summer Daze of chemo:

The past two weeks have been both intensely surreal and chaotic, hence the lack of a new update. So sorry for the delay. I've had a tremendous amount on my plate aside from the diagnosis. Most important was moving my mother and her belongings into a newly available spot within the community she lives in before I was admitted. She now requires far more caregiving. Needless to say this was a tremendous endeavor, considering the timing and circumstances. 

On Monday July 7th I had a MUGA study test at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) to confirm heart pumping ability thru my left ventricle. This is to ensure the chemotherapy I receive thru my Hickman chest-tube will not pool in the ventricle. Tuesday the 8th I was admitted into University of Washington Medical Center and Chemo started right away. Rather daunting. I am now day 5 into my High Intensity Chemo, this the last day. Wednesday was the worst so far with nausea and a small bit of vomiting - only a glimpse of what may yet come. A new added element, my blood pressure has been running rather low. The lowest 89/43 and 88/52 but I have no other symptoms so we're simply monitoring it at this point. 

How am I feeling ? That's a loaded question. I'm still horrifically stunned I'm back in this place, again. My appetite is diminishing far sooner then I would have thought this time. The nausea is being masked (just barely) with various med's. My blood counts are dropping.... significantly, which is what we expected. I likewise needed my very first red blood cell (RBC) transfusion on Wed, far sooner than I thought. I've been surprisingly lethargic, likely due to my hematocrit being low at 24. It's a bit scary when all the blood lines bottom-out. This means I have no protection against virus, fungus, bacteria, etc. 

Once Neva returns and takes over posting these somewhat daily updates we will be posting bloods levels as well as an interactive calendar. Blood results are an extremely crucial element in charting the progression of the treatment. On a different note, there are several hospital regulations that must be observed on the Leukemia floor (8SA wing). As mentioned earlier no live flowers or plants. Home-made fully cooked food is always welcome (dependent on my appetite) but all food must stop off at the nursing station first. Only bring to the room what will be eaten. If food comes to my room first the leftovers can not be stored in the community Patient refrigerator. If you have a cold, or even just a runny nose please wait to visit until it has resolved. Neither I nor any of the other patients on this floor have enough cells on-board to fight against infections. Thanks so much for observing and understanding this.

Game plan is now 2 rounds (!!) of this high intensity Chemo, with perhaps 2-3 weeks of rest in-between - if all goes well.  Then, if I decide to carry on to another transplant, it will be a 6+ week wait after the final chemo. This would likely be sometime in/near November ??  This whole thing just kinda sucks pickles a bit.

Please continue to visit (rm 8420) or call thru the hospitals main # . Please don't be offended if I'm tired, or uber-spacey, I would still love to hear/see you. Maybe call 1st. If I'm feeling crappy I'll let you know. With that being said, please also don't wait for me to reach out and initiate contact first. Simply for the above mentioned reasons Everyone of you have been simply wonderful with the rallying calls for victory and offers of support. At the moment we think we will likely need help mid-Sept after the 2nd round of chemo. And again if we move onto Transplant. Potentially Nov, Dec, and into Jan. Yikes !!   

Again... WTF  ? ?

Kate has so graciously volunteered to be the point person this go-around. We are putting together a list of names who offered support and various needed skills. However it probably wouldn't hurt to reach out to Kate as well. Her e-mail is: 

            katred1969@hotmail.com

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The group e-mail might be the last one sent out via internet. We will likely post updates, photo's and links directly to this web page. Please check in here every few days for the scoop.

             http://kristinasouthard.blogspot.com/

  

And....for odd cravings of the week:  a super dirty martini & tater tots     = ) 

Stay tuned

To Life

Kristina -

Oh, P.S.  does anyone have a good quality Baby Monitor they'd like to get rid of ?  This played a significant role in my nighttime monitoring right after the transplant 7 yrs ago...