Day Zero Plus Fourteen - No Sleep for the Weary

The Benadryl didn’t work very well as a sleep aid.  Jeff asked if they had a sterile mallet.  When the night nurses ask what might help he says, “a back rub.”  He is disgusted that the nurses won’t do that for him.  I guess administering drugs is in the job description but back rubs are not.  I wish I had it in me to stay until he falls asleep.  Or wouldn’t it be nice if we could store one of my daytime backrubs for him to use at night?  Pray for a solution to this problem.  It is what he describes as his biggest issue.

Jeff still isn’t crazy about showers.  Thank goodness for the shower chair.  It seems so funny that he can ride the bike for 10 minutes but finds the shower so unpleasant.  Well, we do have to cover his ports which he is squeamish about (I thought he’d gotten over it after all this time).  And it does require a good bit of wiggling around.  Maybe his IV tubing, a little shorter because of the Aquaguard wrap, gets tugged a little. 

The attending oncologist is happy with Jeff’s blood counts.  The platelet count is still not “real” because he was given platelets recently.  His white blood count had been .3 for about six days, then .5 yesterday and .6 today.  Jeff’s ANC on Wednesday was 120, 250 yesterday and 360 today.  Engraftment is defined as an ANC of 500 or more for more than a day and a platelet count which is rising on its own (without transfusion).  The doctor thinks he’s on target for engraftment on Monday or Tuesday.  He also said that when engraftment happens, Jeff will be allowed out of the room.  “When?,” Jeff asked, sitting up straighter and eyes popping out of his head.  We knew that I’d be allowed to kiss him when his new cells engraft but we didn’t know – or had forgotten – that he’d be allowed out of his cell.  He is getting anxious to go home.  Nurse Kristin says they usually keep patients another week after engraftment.  I think it depends on his blood counts.  We’ll see.  It’s hard not to get too excited. 

Since Jeff has been complaining about how often he has to pee due to all the bags of fluids he is getting, I celebrated the news that his anti-viral medication, Acyclovir, is going to be given orally after today.  We all laughed about that because Acyclovir is in the tiniest IV bag ever.  Nurse Kristin said he’ll have to swallow more water than is in the IV bag in order to get the pill down.

Dave, a friend from church, came for a nice visit this morning.  We talked and laughed -and made plans to have our car detailed at his shop next week so the car will be ready to transport our patient extraordinaire when the time comes.  Before Dave left, he read Psalm 104 which was read in church on Pentecost Sunday.  Nurse Alana came in to take Jeff’s vitals during the reading.  When Dave was finished reading, she asked him to read Psalm 91 for Jeff.  It is what she reads every morning before coming to work.  Dave granted her request.  You might call it the “Disease and Faith Psalm.”  Alana thanked Dave, finished her chores and left, as joyful as she always is.  I thought she was checking Jeff’s blood-oxygen level and blood pressure while Dave read but Jeff told me later that she had held his hand through the entire reading.  I am glad we hung Ken’s stained-glass cross in the window.   It enables staff members who are so inclined to talk about faith with Jeff.

Kim and I went out to lunch and to a small photography exhibit entitled, “Girl Culture,” across the street at Penn’s Fisher Fine Arts building.  It was nice to get away for a little while and take in a little culture.

Judy and Mark visited in the afternoon, too, and then went out to dinner with me.  It was a good day for Jeff to have visitors because he was antsy, uncomfortable in bed and in a chair and on the bike and…