The shots they give her to promote her stem growth, neupogen, really hurt. It hurts going in, they bruise something fierce, and once they start working they hurt the body. But what these shots do is make the baby stem cells grow which, along with the transplanted cells, make it so the cancerous cell that have been killed can be replaced with new nice cancer-free cells. This is good, especially in a transplant like Mom had. Well they affect Mom in giving her body spasms. These bone spasms are primarily in her spine, then rest on her chest. The spasms started last week, got pretty bad on Saturday, and Sunday were less than stellar. Another side effect is a fever that Mom has right now, which is rather high. Any time a transplant patient gets a fever they send him or her down to xray for a chest xray to rule out pneumonia. Mom does not have pneumonia, however they have not ruled her out for getting it because of how sticky her lungs are. Additionally they gave her an echocardiogram which showed that she has atrial fibrillation or a-fib. This means that her heart has an extra flutter even though it is beating strong. Her resting heart rate got up in the high 170's which is not great. It is not has bad as it could have been, but they called in a cardiologist to check her out. They all agree that these issues are a result of her cell counts going up. This is a good thing, but her body should not be reacting like this. To treat the a-fib they gave her amiodarone which kind of kick started her electrons to fire correctly in her heart. They also gave her a rider of magnesium and potassium as they were lower than should have been. The amiodarone started working almost right away. When I left Sunday her heart was beating at around 90-100 which is alright. If she were not in the kind of room she is in, with the HEPA filter, she would have been transferred to ICU to get the cardiac treatment she is getting now.
While I was there for a few hours Sunday I watched a parade of doctors and nurses come though at rapid pace to ensure she was alright and to fix what was going on with her. Dr M. actually reminded Mom that they do not like excitement, rather they want things boring. Mom was not allowed to be in bed yesterday, but on the bright side she was excused from doing her walks yesterday. Is that a bright side?
The good news is her counts: In the last post I mentioned that her neutrophil count was 0, her white count was 0.2. Sunday her neutrophil count was 100 and her white was 0.7; so they are in the rise, which is causing some of her side effect issues but that also means that if they can get these other issues under control Mom can feasibly come home next weekend. I am trying to think positive about it but not get my hopes up. Life has to get boring again in Mom's room for that to happen. So everyone: fingers crossed, good thoughts, plenty of prayers, and thank you!!
Side note: The whole time I was sitting there listening I had to be grateful that I watch Grey's Anatomy so I could understand what they were saying! Thanks Christina for specializing in cardio!
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