2.5 weeks to go

I'm sitting in a Starbucks on Queen Anne nursing a double short latte. It's raining buckets outside, and my rain jacket is soaked. I just walked up from Fremont while listening to the latest This American Life podcast. The wifi is free and I'm buying coffee with the Starbucks cards I got for Christmas, so it's a good deal. I don't have much to report, except that things are still on track, and I'm keeping busy with appointments at the SCCA and spending time with my family. Besides attending classes, my only job right now is to stay healthy and stay hydrated. My nurse wants me to drink 3 liters of water a day, which isn't really so hard since I end up drinking a lot while taking all the necessary drugs 4 times a day.

Johanna and I were a little down last night and this morning, since a fellow blogger who underwent a transplant has taken a turn for the worse in the last few days. She had a cord-blood transplant over a month ago, and has been in ICU for the last 4 weeks with small bits of good news, but generally steadily getting worse. It started with a kidney complication, which led to fluid accumulating in her lungs which they had to drain each day. Her lungs became damaged and she went on a ventilator soon after. Possibly because of all the medication and antibiotics, her heart started beating irregularly, and they had to restart it once. Her husband has been steadfastly blogging the whole time. And all the time I'm hoping for the best and have been assuming that, though things are bad, they will turn around eventually and they will all look back on it as just some really tough times. It's like watching a dramatic movie and thinking to yourself that surely the director won't end it with a tragedy. You just never really think that the worst could actually happen. So it has been sad to read the last few blog entries and realizing that it's possible she won't pull through. She's 19 (sorry, she's 28), and though her leukemia was worse than mine and she didn't go into her transplant in remission, reading about her struggle has really had an effect on us. And from her pictures you can see that she is a vivacious, young 28 year old with tons of energy and is smiling in basically every picture. Yesterday they got news that her leukemia had returned with a vengeance, and they don't plan to restart her heart if it stops again. She's been under chemical paralysis and heavy sedation, so they might not even get to say goodbye to her. It's all very sad and so I think it has made Johanna and I a little down the last few days. So cross your fingers and toes and pray that she does ok. Her name is Dawn and her blog is at http://www.goshdawnit.com/.


Captain Dawn

Yesterday I met with the transplant team and it was an uneventful meeting, which is great. Everything is still on schedule and we're just waiting to see what next Wednesday's CT scan shows. I'm getting anxious now and am ready to get this thing done with so that I can get back to work and a normal life. Assuming the CT scan looks good, the transplant schedule shouldn't change from the following:

1/12 Mon - Clinic visit with transplant team
1/13 Tue - Food safety class
1/13 Tue - Managing care at home class
1/13 Tue - IV pump class
1/14 Wed - Blood work
1/14 Wed - CT scan
1/15 Thu - Patient/caregiver support group
1/15 Thu - Data review (go/no go meeting)
1/16 Fri - Surgery for Hickman central catheter
1/17 Sat - Hickman care / teaching session
1/19 Mon - Admitted into UW Hospital
1/20 Tue - Start 5 days of intensive chemo
1/26 Mon - Transplant

That's about it for now. Check out these awesome turkey burgers our friends Nic and Rachael made for us the other night! That's Nic, with their cute but hyperactive pug, Lola. :)