Day 23 Friday

Finally I get back to posting on this blog. You would have thought I was on vacation! Let's see...going back to the last post on last Friday and our arrival home. It has been so nice being back home. Dad has adjusted well to being back, in fact, on Saturday he even ate some lunch...which he hadn't done for several weeks. He's basically been taking it easy and resting/napping when he's tired. We've been going for walks around the neighborhood, enjoying the fresh air that we didn't have while at the Med. Center. It's just very liberating to be able to go outside whenever you want...sometimes you take that for granted, but after being without it, we appreciate every breath of that outdoors air.

On Tuesday, Dad went to his oncologist here in Lincoln, but he wasn't able to see his regular doctor (Dr. Hutchins) with such short notice, so he saw the PA. All the nurses there were amazed to see Dad looking so good. Each time he saw a different nurse, they each told him he looked great (of course, he ate that up!). In fact, one of the nurses apparently told Dr. Hutchins that he needed to get in to see Dad because he looked so good! So he did come in for a short visit. We got the name of an oncology radiologist to see and then they set up a time for a PET/CT scan (May 23).

Dad's blood work today didn't make the mark on the platelets...they were up quite a bit...43 (from 28 last Friday)...but still not to the 50 mark...so the catheter stays in for a bit longer.

Wednesday morning, one of the nurses at Dad's oncologist's office called and told me that she and the rest of the office staff were truly amazed at how good Dad looked. She said she has seen quite a few people who have gone through a stem cell transplant and she hasn't ever seen anyone look that good at that stage . She said usually people come in the office with not much color, looking ashen and gray, but she said Dad had good color and just looked great. That was good to hear that from her.

Also, on Wednesday, we drove up to Omaha for my physical therapy for my shoulder at the Med. Center and then afterwards I had set up an appointment with the massage therapist who works at the hospital (particularly with cancer patients). I had a 20 minute neck massage (badly needed!) and Dad had a half hour session mostly concentrating on his feet and hands. He really enjoyed it (and so did I!).

Yesterday (Thursday), Dad had more blood work and we thought for sure that he would reach those platelet numbers...but they were at 46...so again, not quite enough for the surgical procedure that's required to remove that catheter line. We'll try again next Monday (with blood work) and we have an appointment set up to get the catheter removed on Wednesday in Omaha...so hopefully that will work (only if the platelets reach the 50 mark). The rest of his blood work is just sort of hovering, but they aren't concerned about it at this stage...I guess it just takes time, but it's amazing that Dad's feeling as well as he does with those counts down still.

It was time to change the dressing on his catheter line on Tuesday, but we kept thinking that he would be getting it out sometime this week, but since that didn't work, I had to change the dressing yesterday. I luckily had all the supplies needed (rubber gloves, alcohol wipes, a scrubbing sponge to clean around the "exit site" of the catheter, and a clear dressing with tabs to adjust around the whole area). The worst part was taking the old dressing off...it was stuck on pretty good...but it went fine. Hopefully, I won't have to do that again as long as he gets the catheter out next week

So the basic plan is for Dad to have blood work done twice a week through June 7 when he will meet with Dr. Hutchins. In the meantime, he will have the scans on May 23 and then meet with Dr. Hutchins on May 25 and then with the radiologist on May 27. I'll be keeping you posted as to the catheter removal and blood work next week.