Very Rough Going

I have not kept this page as up to date as I would have liked too. It has been very busy here and I have been either tired or distracted or both plus all the medical stuff is so very complicated it is hard for me to put into words just what is all going on.

John is in an Intensive Care room here on the eighth floor. They have Intensive Care rooms right on the ward where he is staying as opposed to being in an Intensive Care Unit. The room that John is in now is very large and almost two rooms so when I can get my hands on a cot I should be able to tuck it into my small room and hopefully get some sleep as I am able. He was brought here for a procedure that was to hopefully help his heart and blood pressure. It failed.

Becky and John's mom are here in Seattle as well. Last night we tried having mom stay the night and figured we could spell each by staying over alternate nights. We were phoned at 3:30 in the morning because John blood oxygen levels were seemingly down plus he had a bad bleed from his bone marrow biopsy site and had to have a transfusion. We got here quick as it is not a long drive and there is no traffic at that time. It turns out that his levels were not all that horrible after all. The blood gases test showed the actual levels were acceptable. He does need to be on oxygen though. He hates the mask and he hates all the lines and apparently he just pulled out a line that was in to measure things.

I have decided that the best way to do things is that I stay here all the time now with John day and night. He wants me near at all times. They can do tag team and bring me food and clean cloths and such.

He does have an infection. His white counts are good so they figure that it should not be a problem treating whatever it is. They also figure that this could have contributed to his low blood pressure even though he is on large amounts of drugs to raise his blood pressure.

I guess the biggest problem that is there is knowing on just how much fluid to remove. They are having a big meeting today. Pulmonary Medicine guys and the cardiologists are in a bit of dispute as to whether there is too much fluid or not enough fluid so they are going to have another big meeting with everybody who is involved with his care to make decisions on what is going to be done next and make sure they are all on the same page.

John is now being fed through IV. He just was not able to take in enough calories by himself.

Pray for wisdom for the doctors. His case is extremely complicated and they are having a very hard time figuring out what the problem is. He is on a cardiac catheter. We hoped that would give them the insight that they needed but they still seem to be not sure of things. His Nephrologist did assure me this morning that they are not all idiots even if it may seem so at times.

I had some visitors from the North Seattle Alliance Church. Grace from hospital visitation came by and a couple of the elders came yesterday and prayed for John. He was sleeping at the time so I do want them to come by again and anoint him and pray. I wanted him to be awake.

John is very tired. I am not sure how much longer he will be able to fight. I am told that his heart is not working well. Almost hourly I am told different things by different doctors. It is almost impossible to update his status. I would have to say that it is extremely serious.

I am not sure if any of this makes sence. I have had to re write it a couple of times as more information comes.

I'm Here

Hi everyone. Just a quick update cause I'm TIRED.

Gramma and I made it safe and sound, although I did lose her briefly in Seattle airport. Next time, I'm tying her to me. Everything else went very smoothly, and Mel will be happy to know our customs guy was a sweetie and even said he'd pray for Dad.

Seattle is BEAUTIFUL. What a pretty city. I drove to the grocery store tonight.

Dad is... Well, I'll be honest. He looks so frail, and he was all wired up, and he is still very confused. It is hard to see him like this and just want him to suddenly look over at you and just be... Him. I got to pat his head though. His hair is growing back, and it is soft like a bunny rabbits.

When I arrived he was very happy to see Hannah and me, but he insisted that I had brought Ben when I told him I hadn't. Poor Dad. He'd like all his grand-treasures here with him, I'm sure. Hannah was her usual charming self and made him smile though, so we're all glad she's here. (Mom of course can't get enough of our little banana baby.)

Dad is having 36 hours of dialysis and he is in ICU so they can monitor him while they do that. Plus there was some heart catheter thing going on, or it is going on, or something. It can tell the doctors whether there is fluid there that needs to be removed. I think they are hoping that once he is all caught up, and some of that fluid is taken out, a lot of the things that are causing troubles will go away. Please pray that they are right and that this works. Please also pray that in his tiredness he won't give up, that he'll somehow find the strength to keep fighting.

Love and hugs to all of you and many BIG thanks to those that prayed for me today. After stressing about the trip, I have to confess, I almost enjoyed it and flying into Seattle from Vancouver was the prettiest thing I've seen maybe ever.

Gramma is staying with Dad tonight so Mom can get some rest. Hopefully she will have a good sleep since she had a pretty long day of travelling today.

More tomorrow... Err... Today... Later today. Wait. What time IS it? Mom and Dad really need to consider setting the computer clock to Seattle time. Or is it already?

Either way, I'm going to sleep.

Once Again, A Title Eludes Me

It's been a hard week. And tomorrow looks like it will be a hard day. Dad is very weak. We aren't sure if they are going to shock his heart tomorrow or not. He is having some new stomach problems due to the transplant which will require heavy doses of steroids, which will cause fluid retention, which is already a problem since any additional fluid has to be taken out with dialysis.

I'm not gonna lie people. It's all complete crap and Dad sounds worse every time I talk to him. He is struggling. The doctors have plans to try to get him stable, but from our perspective things just don't look good.

If you are able, please join with me in fasting and praying for my dad. Tomorrow is looking like it will be a big day in terms of finding out how things are going to turn out. We are by no means past the point of crisis.

In addition to this, Dad gets very upset without someone there with him every hour of every day. Please pray for my mom. My sister is there with them now to help, but she is going home on Tuesday and Mom will be on her own again....

Although, plans are in the works for Gramma and I to fly out on Wednesday. More about that later though.

P.S. He loves phone calls. 206-598-3902

Whole Lot of Tweaking

For those of you who aren't on facebook, I thought I'd post an update Mom wrote earlier today:

Due to the kidney failure, it has become necessary to make a lot of adjustments too John's medications and to change a lot of his medications. They have switched one of his anti rejection drugs because it has become almost impossible to keep the levels stabe. The Tacrolimus is causing Parkinson like symptoms. The levels have got too high. It is hard for him to hang onto anything. They are reducing his Fentanal patches because he is groggy and and still somewhat confused at times. They are adjusting his heart meds to get them just right. As soon as they have the levels just right, they are going to try to shock his heart back into a normal rhythm and hopefully it will stay there. I think that they are going to try to take off more fluid again today.

John is weak. He is not eating very well. Pray that he will drink enough Nepro ( kidney version of Ensure or Boost) to maintain and regain his strength. He is having back and hip pain I think mostly due to being stuck in his bed for days on end. Physio has been coming around and been getting him up. He was up in his chair this morning but was very tired and weak. Hopefully as they get things under control he will start to feel better. For now, it still is a rough go.

- Christine

I Can't Think of a Title

So, not a great day. Not even a blah day. Just a day that I can't even find a word to express how much I wish that it wasn't like this.

(Please bear with me, I'm going to try to explain things as close to how Mom explained them to me as I can, but... Well, I'm doing my best. Hopefully I remember it all right.)

I think it started out all right. The doctors said that he didn't have a clot in his leg. There was no pain or redness and the other leg started doing it a little too, so it is obviously something else. So that's good.

He has a touch of pneumonia I guess, but he's on antibiotics, so I don't think anyone is too worried about that. I don't think he has a fever or anything. But he was out of breath, and his blood pressure was low, so one of his doctors decided to do an ECG to see how his heart was doing. It was racing and beating irregularly again so they had to shock it back into a regular rhythm. Mom stayed in the room with him, she is one tough cookie, my mom.

Then they moved him to intensive care. They want to put him on a drug that will keep his heart rate steady, and apparently they need to have him in intensive care to be able to monitor him. They also ran a whole bunch of tests to make sure he was all right and to see what was going on. It turns out he had a heart attack. This may have been caused by any number of things, including the blood clot that Mom mentioned in the last post. It could also be caused by his low blood pressure which may have been caused by the dialysis which also may have caused his heart to race and beat irregularly in the first place... You see how everything is all connected and complicated?

Anyways... I talked to him and he told me not to freak out. My words, not his. His words were to not go somewhere where I don't need to go, which is obviously to the not-so-merry old land of "I'm never going to see my dad again". It's not very easy to keep from freaking out when the "H" word starts getting used. I guess I'm getting used to the "C" word by now, because that used to be terrifying all by itself.

Mom says they will have more news tomorrow morning. It better be good-ish. Or at least not bad-ish, because I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I'm really not sure how much more of this I can take. (Or any of us.)

I bought plane tickets today to go see them at the beginning of November. I wish they were for tomorrow. Does anyone have some money they don't need that they'd like to use to fly us all out there? I need to pet Dad's hair. I'm sure it will irritate him, but I really need to just stand by his bed and pet him.

I hope next week is better. This is getting really hard. (As if it wasn't already hard.) Thanks so much for praying. I'm sure it's the only thing keeping my mom as calm as she is.

I'm trying to think of something else to write, because when I'm done with this post I'll have nothing left to do but try to sleep... Maybe some Farm Town...

Love you all. Hug someone you love and maybe even pet their hair a little...

Much Better

My sleepover ended around four in the morning. That was around the time that the snoring did me in. I felt fine about going as he was doing much better and I had got the night attending physician to have a look at him. He had to go twice for an x-ray. The first one he had not took in a deep enough breath because he was so groggy so he had to go for a second one which turned out much better. He has the start of pneumonia. They figure that he may have aspirated when he was so groggy. He was put on antibiotics right away. That was all wraped up about 1:00am. I am glad that I stayed and got some of this looked after. I am amazed at how well I am functioning on only four hours of sleep. The Lord must have gave me super sleep because I feel well rested.

I also showed the night attending that one of his legs was swollen. I had only noticed it late in the evening when I was taking off his sock. He will have to have an ultra sound today to make sure there is not a clot in his leg.

When they did the ultra sound of his heart on Tuesday they had found a clot on the end of one of his lines. I only found out about this yesterday afternoon when the nurse was telling me about a new drug they were putting him on. He was already getting heparin but I thought that was only because of the procedure yet I was wondering why he was still on that. Well...that is why. There is really nothing further that they will do if they find a clot on his leg because he is already getting the blood thinners that they would use to treat the clot. If he has one I am hoping that it is below the knee as those clots are less likely to move. Nurse Damon tole me that the clot on the end of the line is small so it should dissolve rather quickly.

I am frustrated about the fact that the doctors rotate every four weeks even here in the hospital. Dr. H. has gone back to the Hutch (the research center) and now we have Dr. I don't know, I did see him but he did not speak to me at all doctor and his last name starts with the letter O. He of coarse has a new game plan and basically chucked Dr. H's plan. This involves giving him masses of anti nausea drugs hoping that John will be able to eat. Dr. H planned to start giving him IV nutrition and had told John not to worry about eating.

I talked to the night attending about all of this and told her I was starting to get very concerned about John's lack of nutrition. When a person is on dialysis, they need more protein because the dialysis leeches it away. If your body does not get enough protein, it will steel it from the muscles. The heart is a muscle. He may have a good reason for changing the plan but I would like to know what it is.

John is doing much better this morning. He was up in his chair for breakfast and managed to eat some of it. Nurse D is holding off the anti nausea meds so that John can stay awake long enough to have a shower.

Through all of this I am staying calm. Thank you for your prayers. I know that God is answering them. He is watching over us.

Just A Tad Too Much Ativan

John has been having trouble with nausea. This morning he asked for a double dose of his Ativan. By the time I got here, umm, he was pretty stoned so, he is telling me some pretty strange things this morning. His nurse is hooking him up to the dialysis machine so she said that she can get him un-stoned faster than if it was going to wear off by itself. Maybe he will just go to sleep and stay out of trouble. So far he has been telling me about robbers and something or other that he hid in the bathroom and no longer can find. He is being a bit of a handful. The doctors are going to try a different regime to try to control the nausea, one that won't leave him so out of it. The doctors gave him IV yesterday after the heart procedure and all that fluid stayed in his body so he is puffy and having more trouble breathing. The dialysis will take care of that. Good news: His heart is staying in a nice normal rhythm.

Minutia!

When stuck in a small room for a couple of weeks that is about all there is to focus on. Things like not having frosting on the Mini-Wheats, having orange slices and red peppers coming with your toast so that the toast tastes like red peppers and oranges, low volume on the new TV so that you can't hear it over the dialysis machine, TV with a dark screen and no way to fix it and no view of the mountains become things that a person tends to focus on. Suffice it to say that John is not in love with his new room. They moved it because the guy next door is on dialysis as well and it is easier for his nurse to keep track of them both. It doesn't help that papa bear is not allowed off the floor and that he cannot go in the family room. I think he is starting to go stir crazy.

For me, little things can amuse. I found myself talking to a little bird that had stopped for a rest on the roof garden this morning. I thanked him/her for the lovely song. I asked him/her what kind of a bird she/he was but did not get an answer. I thanked her/him. It was a lovely song and I don't think that these birds live in Saskatchewan. Sometimes a couple of crows visit and sometimes a little humming bird. There are a lot of crows that live in Seattle. I saw a mouse last night outside the front doors of the hospital. I moved out of his way and kept a vigilant watch until the cab came. So you can see that I am just as focused on minutia as John.

John is feeling a lot better this morning. He ate a small bowl of cereal. We went for a walk around the loop. He is having a shower. He will have four hours of dialysis this afternoon. His white blood counts are coming up. Hopefully he will start to feel better and be able to get out of this place in the next few days. The doctors have not said anything yet as to when he might be able to leave.

Here is a picture of the new view:



Well, a couple of pictures, two to be exact.

Blah

Hi all, I thought I'd send out an update on how Dad is doing and give Mom a little break...

I talked to them on the phone and Dad is feeling pretty cruddy. His stomach hurts and he has diarrhea again, plus he's nauseated and just feeling all around yucky I think. (Cruddy and yucky are very technical medical terms.) It's not anything unexpected, but it isn't great since Dad is off his food again. Mom said some fancy word to me with mucus in it, which I know means that the mucus membranes in his body are probably irritated and inflamed. He is taking a lot of drugs and just had radiation, so it's not a big surprise that he is feeling so poorly, just a big disappointment.

His counts bottomed out on Saturday (no, I couldn't say for sure what they are counting, but I think it's white blood cells), and came up a little, which means (without all the fancy technical words that my mom can remember but I can't) that his immune system was almost totally gone but is hopefully on the rise again. That could help him feel better, since his body can't heal his membranes, including the ones in his stomach and intestines, without an immune system.

Please pray that he will feel better soon. I know it is hard on my mom when he isn't feeling well, and when he isn't eating. I also know that it is hard not to feel hopeless when your body is feeling miserable so please pray for my dad's (and mom's) spirits. Pray that they will feel God's love and healing presence very close to them over the next while.

I hope I got that all right, if I didn't, that's okay, you can still pray and I'm sure God will figure out what we're talking about.

The View From John's Room

This is where the University of Washington Huskies play football. We just can't quite see the field. Apparently, there will be a game tomorrow so there will be lots of traffic. It won't bother me because I am here long before the game starts and go home long after it is finished.

During the football game the lake fills with boats. I will try to get a picture tomorrow. I don't know what they are doing there. They can't possibly see the field! I think they just like to come and show off and party.

It is a nice view.

John is on day two of dialysis. He will have it again tomorrow and then have a day off on Sunday and then back at it on Monday. We are not sure when they plan to discharge him. They did say that not until his tachrolimus levels are stable. They will not be putting in the peritoneum line next Friday because his white counts are going down and do not want to risk infection. (this is normal and a part of the transplant) That procedure will have to wait until his counts go up again. He is feeling somewhat better today and has started eating a little bit.

I did my grocery shopping at the online Safeway store. They will be delivered on Monday. I think I could learn to love that. I hate grocery shopping. Think about it, a person can shop and watch T.V. all at the same time. Hee hee.

John is watching the Food Network. His nurse commented that many of the patients watch that even though they have mucositis and are nauseated and not eating. I have always found this habit of his strange but am comforted by the fact that he is not alone in his odd behavior.

I did another post today that follows this one. It is for brave and non squeamish people only. I don't want to traumatize anybody.

Ready Set Go

Every thing went well during the procedure this morning to place the line in John for the dialysis. While he was gone for that, imagine my surprise when the technicians showed up with the dialysis machine and proceeded to set that up. I was not aware that they would be starting it right away today. He has been on the machine for a couple of hours now and should be finished soon. He will have more tomorrow. I guess they like to start out slow and gentle. He should start to feel better in the next couple of days and I hope that he starts eating. He has not been eating much.

There, his nurse is gowning up and must be getting ready to disconnect him. He cannot get the line put in for the peritoneal dialysis until next week Friday. I think he has decided that he will opt for that. He is really not saying much. Pretty quiet, but I guess, really, what is there to say.

Last night my blogging friend, Shelia, came and she took me out for dinner. We had a really nice visit. I think we could have sat up all night and just talked. I wish I could take her back home with me to Canada. Maybe she would like to become a Canadian? You know, every now and then you meet somebody that you just click with. She is like that. Thanks Shelia. Just to get out for an evening gave me a boost.

Dialysis

Well, it is pretty much a sure thing that John is going to require dialysis. They are going to put a temporary line in tomorrow so that it is there right away. Now we have to make a decision as to which type of dialysis he will want to have for the long term. The nice thing is that there are choices and he does not have to go into a clinic to have it done but can do it at home which means that he will be able to have more freedom.

The first type is standard in clinic hemodialysis which is done about every three days in a clinic. The second type is peritoneal dialysis. This is done at home. This takes a couple of weeks to learn. The third type is home hemodialysis which takes much more training probably up to eight weeks . We are kind of thinking of trying the peritoneal dialysis. It is reversible. We don't have to stay with it if John hates it. They are quite willing to get that set up and by the time we go home we should be pros.

I also want to thank everybody for all their heartfelt thoughts and prayers. It means a lot to both of us and really gives us a boost. We are doing alright and will get through this and learn to adjust. We are keeping our eyes on the big picture and that is to have a successful transplant. That is the most important thing.

Keep calm, keep giong.

That is what the signs say. Posted all over our street are bright red signs stapled to the power poles. They say "Keep Calm, Keep Going". They are probably posted for a marathon or something. Bright red. Hard to miss. Appeared yesterday. I wish they said: "To Chris - Signed God" I will keep going but sometimes it is hard to keep calm but I am trying to do what the signs say.

If John's kidneys do not start to show progress by Thursday he will be on dialysis. Pray for his creatinine to start to clear. It hasn't yet. It just sits there.

Thank you all for praying. We do need a miracle.

Rough Day

John phoned me at 6:00a.m. because he was having chest pains. Apparently they started around 4:00a.m. but he decided to see if they were going to go away before he phoned. I high tailed it to the hospital. The doctors had already started testing out his heart by the time I was there and could find no evidence of heart trouble. This did not deter them and they kept popping in and out of the room hemming and hawing because they could not figure out what would be causing the pain. After worrying and thinking, it finally hit me. I asked John if this was the same pain that he had when he popped his ribs out of joint. Yes! I mentioned it to the next group of doctors that came in. They thought that it had possibilities. They sent him for a CT scan. They still sent heart specialists in. They sent the pain doctor in. The kidney doctors came in a few times too. All day long there was a steady flux of guys in white coats. Anyway according to the pain doctor, he had heard rumors that a rib was involved. Nobody really came and told us so but they finally quit visiting so I am guessing that I was right.

John's kidneys are not clearing the bad stuff out of hiss system yet. His potassium has gone up again this afternoon, so more dirt drink for him this evening and more trip to the toilet. They are trying some kind of an I.V. concoction to get his urea down. If that does not work he is going to have to have dialysis. The renal doctor told us that most patients who are put on dialysis have less than a fifty percent chance of ever being free of that. It is starting to sound discouraging as far as his kidneys go. We have been reassured that a person can live many years being on dialysis. The sad thing is that you are pretty much married to the machine. His life has been changed so much by the Myeloma, it is heartbreaking to me to see his life impacted even more.

His spirits are getting low. Hope sometimes is a very illusive thing.

Getting Antsy

John is for the most part feeling alright. He is not allowed to leave the ward and wonder around the hospital (haha! He is not allowed to wander around either!) so he is starting to feel cooped up. He is staying in stable condition and managing to avoid dialysis. Mostly it is a waiting game now. How long do we have to wait? No idea.

He is not eating a lot. Mostly he feels bloated after he eats. This is due to his poor functioning kidneys and they figure that he will have less problems with the bloat when his kidneys start to work again. He is not allowed to take in very much liquid. He is allowed to take in about 32 oz. a day which is the equivalent of two small bottles of pop.

He wants me to bring him a fried ham sandwich tomorrow. That will just make him thirsty. I think it is a bad plan and I think that I will be having a salad. Heehee. I shall go and get that ready now. I will have the fried ham sandwich tonight. Shhhhh....don't tell.

Waiting

John is staying stable. The doctors are taking it a day at a time. John had to drink more dirt drink late this afternoon to try to get his potassium levels down. I guess the lactose followed by insulin does not really get it out of his system permanently. The K-flex dirt drink does. It takes it out through the bowels. Not very fun stuff on many different levels. Anyway, it worked. His potassium was in the normal range by the time I left this evening. Now I can sleep much better tonight.

John had a pretty good day. He was quite perky even this afternoon and even planned on having a hamburger for supper. The dirt drink wrecked that plan cause after he drinks it he has to fight to keep it down. The nurses helped him along by giving him a dose of Ativan which put him to sleep. I hope he can sleep tonight.

They treat us very well in the hospital. The nurses are fantastic. They seem to have lots of time for their patients.

Well, that really is all the news for today. We are staying optimistic.

Hospitalized

We were hoping that we could avoid the hospital. It would have been nice to have given it a pass, but hospitals sure are nice when you need them. John's kidneys have taken a dislike to the treatment they have been getting. One of his anti-rejection drugs is not very kidney friendly, and top that off with radiation, and all of those new cells that he got yesterday, well..... Just not happy. His creatinine levels are quite elevated and his uric acid and potassium is very high. He is not peeing either.

He will have to stay in the hospital until they get all of this stabilized. He may have to have dialysis for a little while just to give his kidneys a break. I have been told that this will not be a permanent thing. They are going to try to avoid that.

He did have a violent bout of vomiting this afternoon shortly after getting the dirt drink. They give him a horrible cocktail to reduce the potassium in his system. He burst some of the small blood vessels in his face doing this. Now he has to drink some more to replace what he threw up.

He is very tired. Yesterday was a long, long day, and we really did not get a full nights sleep last night.

Ordering meals is done very differently at this hospital. They have room service. You can order food whenever you want off of the menu which is bigger than most restaurants. You call the order in and it gets there within 45 minutes. You can order from early morning until 7:30 at night. I am thinking that maybe the patient gets billed, but I am not sure as there were no prices on the food. The hospital is nice and even the toilet paper is good. It is not the cheep scratchy stuff of back home.

I am feeling tired and stressed. It did not help things to have the taxi dispatcher yell at me and hang up on me because I did not know where to find the account number on the voucher I was given by the Cancer Alliance. The person on the phone was not only rude, but intimidating. It made me cry, but really it was just the straw that broke the camel's back. When I called back again I got a different person who was somewhat better, although by that time I had figured out the right information. The cab driver was appalled at how I was treated and gave me a number to call and complain. He was also mad because stuff like that can affect his livelihood. For my part, I really have better things to do than phone and complain, but I will do it for the driver's sake. He said that this is not the first time this has happened and if people phone it may get fixed.

O.K. I am tired. I am not going to edit this, well maybe tomorrow. Goodnight all.

Sorry that I have not done an update for a while. Things have been going good. We have been managing to get out and about and have a little fun as well. I think that this is really helping us to be positive and also not to get home sick. So far our spirits are good. Sunday we are going for a two hour cruise on a sailing ship in the harbor. The Cancer Alliance get free passes for many activities and give them out to the patients and their families. A couple of weeks ago we had passes to a Mariners game and it was up in a private suite. You should have seen our seats! That was pretty nice and it was the first and only professional ball game that John had had the pleasure of seeing. We did have a chance to see one when we were in Toronto a number of years ago but then the ball strike happened.

David got in alright but we did have a bit of a kerfuffle with his hotel reservations. The short story is that he had to sleep on our couch last night. We do have him in the Hampton Inn for the rest of his stay. I am sure that he will sleep much better tonight.

Friday John got his Hickman line put in and because he went ahead and had the procedure done without sedation he really did not have to have any recovery time. He felt so good that we went out for supper and he has not had to take any extra pain medication.

Today we have a class to learn how to take care of the line. I have to know how to change the dressing and how to flush the line. I will bring my camera with to the class and take pictures for you of the line. Melissa, don't worry. I will title that post so that you are warned so you won't get tricked into seeing the pictures.

Today David starts his injections to prep him for the stem cell harvest. He does not have to have as many injections as John did. He is young and healthy and I guess it takes less to convince his cells that it would be nice to go for a swim out in his circulatory system. Wednesday is the BIG day. I have so many hopes for after Wednesday. All those new cells will implant themselves and start killing cancer. On Wednesday we will have been here three whole weeks!

All Settled

It is hard to believe that we have already been here a whole week. John, however, says it feels like a month so for me time seems to fly by but for him, it is slowly ticking. Our days have been filled with things that we already went through the last time we were here. We did manage to get out of the food safe class seeing as how we did that the last time. We went to another class today because we did not remember if we took it before. We did. Zzzzzzzzz Oh well, a little refresher does not hurt anybody. I did learn that we need to get some sun screen cause UV rays can aggravate graph vs. host so there you have it. Not a total waste of time.

Here is a tour of our digs:


This is the view off our balcony. The other day, I watched as a couple of homeless people rooted through the garbage. There are a lot of homeless in the area. The other morning somebody was sleeping in the door alcove of the derelict building across the street from the front entrance of our apartment building. The area is a real mix of run down and abandoned buildings and very nice buildings. The people in the area are just as varied. There is constant traffic down the back lane as a huge gym is just down the way and access to the parking garage is down the lane. Also, there is construction next door and all the cement trucks and such make there way down the lane. The good news is that they don't start work until seven in the morning and quit around five. The I-5 runs just across the street from this building. Surprisingly we are getting used to the noise of that.

This is my attempt at beautifying the view. Hrumph! This plant cost me twenty dollars. Around this time in Saskatoon, I would have only had to pay half of that. It does cheer me up so it was worth it and I think I can keep it alive until we have to go home. I will give you all progress reports on the health of the plant. I am sure you are really concerned and will wait with baited breath for that.


Anyhoo, I am sure next week will be very busy. David will be here by September first and the transplant takes place on September 9th. I will update when I have anything to tell you. So far, there is not much to say. It has all been pretty redundant.

Take care and thanks for praying.

Week One

Monday: The trip from Vancouver Island to Seattle was tiring. We had to wait an hour and a half at the ferry but were glad that we did arrive early because that insured us passage on the next sailing. We had to wait two hours at the border. We did not make it in time to get our key so we stayed the night in Everett.

Tuesday: Made it here alright. Got keys, unpacked and did the big grocery shop. Got all settled in. It was nice to make our supper and not have to eat out. Monday night supper at Denny`s left much to be desired even though our waiter kept insisting that we were in for a big treat and that everything we ordered was YUMMY! Let me assure you that it was anything but yummy. It amounted to over priced gut rot.

Wednesday: Wednesday was a whirlwind of appointments. They again forgot to schedule time for lunch. We were very hungry when we got home.

Thursday: More appointments and tests. I packed a lunch to bring with as it looked like we were going to miss lunch again. An appointment was changed so we had time, lots of time, for lunch but was still glad that I packed lunch because the bistro here serves strange food, lots of tofu and sprouts and leeks and other foods that I don`t have a clue about and don`t really want to know about. John is even less adventurous than me so he was very thankful.

Friday: We are up bright and early and at the clinic. John is having his bone marrow biopsy. Pray that it is good. The last one that was taken was somewhat inconclusive apparently seeing as how it was taken so soon after the transplant.

No matter the results, the transplant will go this time. Ian, our nurse, said we won`t be sent home from school this time.

We have the weekend off and so far only one appointment for Monday. If the weather cooperates, we plan to go to the tree park that is known as the Arbouratorium (spell check does not recognize that word). The wiener sticks will hopefully be put to good use. It has been hot up to today. This morning it is overcast and misty. We are liking it as our apartment does not have air conditioning but I do hope for some sunshine on the weekend so that we can get out and enjoy some sun, the fresh air will probably have to wait until we get back home.

Hopefully, next week I will have a router so that I can have Internet at our apartment. Until then I can only post here at the clinic where they have free wireless so I won`t be in communication with you until Monday. Talk to you later. Take care every body.