The One After The Transplant

Mom has been in the hospital now for 11 days. Hopefully she will be out in a week or so. She has had a few bad days. But overall she is doing alright. The chemo hit her pretty hard this time. She was not super sick last time; but the chemo was not her friend at all. The night before her transplant Colleen and I took her girls in to see Mom. They played with Grandma for a while, showing off how much they love her ...

Then on the day of her transplant Sissy went up to see her and gave her some lovin as well. That line in her right chest is where she gets all of her treatments done.

Here is a pic of Mom during her transplant. It is not so taxing as one might think, however it does smell bad. Mom is sucking on a sucker because it tastes bad to her. Deb said it best "Imagine creamed corn and fish." Gross right? For days.

I went up to see Mom today, this was her attempt at smiling for a picture. Bless her heart.

Here are the (not so graphic) details. If you do not want to know then I suggest you just look at the pretty pictures of Mom again with 3 of her 5 grandchildren. By the way the other 2 grand kids have been up to see her too, but I was not there to take a pic. 

Last Thursday was her transplant given by cute (married) nurse Ben. We were told by Mahmoud, the transplant tech, that the cells they collected 3 years ago have been stored at -195 C which was like -315 F or something crazy like that. They thaw them to about 98 F but they are still cold going in. The DMSO causes the bad taste in her mouth and the smell of creamed corn. They had 6 bags of stem cells this time. The transplant took about 90 minutes ... the smell lasted days. Mom was tired the rest of the day, but had many visitors to share the day with. The next day the chemo kicked her trash. She was not feeling good at all. Sadly the next day I got sick so I could not see her for a few days. However, she has been nauseous and very very tired. Yesterday her numbers dropped, as we knew they would, so she has no energy. Her neutrphil count is 0, her white blood count is 0.2. Her red count and platelets are heading down too. They have her platelets today, she will have a few more blood transfusions before her numbers will start going up. The lack of blood counts is what makes her so tired ... well that and the fact she has cancer ... and just had chemo.

One side effect of this treatment that is new that she did not really expect is that she is weepy. She is not depressed, she is not sorry for herself, she is not even really sad about anything. She was not really weepy last time that I remember. Actually Mom is a trouper. She really is one of the strongest women I know. She makes a decision and goes for it. She is not one who second guesses herself. She knew what she signed up for this time, having done it before, and she knew it was going to be hell (my word not hers) and she chose to do it anyway. I love that she wants to fight. I love that she is fighting. I love her. 

What can she expect in the next week? Life is going to get a little worse, then it will get better. Her numbers will hit rock bottom. She will have more blood transfusions. She may start getting sores in her mouth, throat, esophagus, intestines, or stomach (knock on wood this does not happen.) She will start to lose her hair next week. Some of the other side effects of chemo are not really blog appropriate, but use your imagination on how sick she could get. So far, knock on wood, she has not contracted any stomach viruses; she got one last time and they do not give her any meds for it, it has to go away on its own which is miserable. When the patients get this they put in place contamination protocols where those who come in contact with her have to wear gloves and masks and the kids probably would not be able to go see her. So it could be worse, not much but it could be. I can imagine if Mom is reading this now: "Really Steph, it could get worse? Tell me!!" 

She still takes walks around the floor, though she gets more tired quicker than she did. I was proud of her today she went a little longer than she did for our walk yesterday. She said she feels like she is getting slower, she is. But I am proud of her. It is hell. And she is a fighter.