For now, I'll update everyone on how things are going in Rochester
To make best use of the time Andy has off we elected to have my mom (Crys) join me this week. Because many of my procedures have anesthesia, I need someone with me the whole time. This week is just tests to make sure I am ready for the transplant and my preference is to have Andy with me during the actual treatments. Here's what we did today:
| 7:15 | We checked in at the transplant center and picked up my paperwork. This is the first indication of what we were in for this week. Every day is booked solid. Come to find out there is no point showing up before 7:00. They were not open. |
| 7:30 | Checked in at lab. Or at least we tried to. When we got to the lab, there was a huge line. it was roughly a 30 minute wait just to check in the lab then another hour to get called. There were so many people waiting. No room to sit. If you think that all these people are sick, it's a bit ridiculous to make them stand in line for check in for 30 min, then have no place to sit while they wait for their names to be called. In fact, we saw one person about pass out. By the time we got checked in, we were in danger of being late for my bone marrow biopsy. So we left the lab area without doing anything. Not exactly a great start to the day. |
| 8:15 | Bone Marrow Biopsy. I do these sedated now. It was a quick procedure. No problems. Just a bit sore in my hip. Sedation is fun... |
| 10:00 | We returned to the lab. Line was much shorter now. They drew 18 vials of blood for various tests. I also have to capture all my urine for the next 24 hours. Fun... |
| 10:30 | Sinus X-Ray. I guess since I have a history of sinus issues, they wanted to check things out. Guessing most do this since they are looking for any potential sources of infection. |
| 12:15 | Educational Class about taking care of a central port (Hickman). It's almost identical to changing the dressing on a PICC line. I;ve seen htis done a million times. |
| 1:45 | Chest X-Ray. More radiation exposure, no super powers yet. |
| 2:15 | Pulmonary test. This was an interesting one. They tested my lungs. It actually was a bit tiring. I think I know what a baloon animal feels like now. |
| 2:45 | EKG: checking out the heart I guess. this was really quick and no big deal |
| 3:40 | Dental consult. Basically the dentist is looking for potential sites that could cause infection. He gave me the all clear. At his point in the day I was so tired, and the dentist was running so far behind he didn't actually see me until 5:00. I actually fell asleep in the room waiting on him. |
Tons of walking today. Lots of back and forth between buildings and most of the tests themselves went really fast. For the most part, if we were running early we could go get in line at the next place and they got me in right away. It was all going smooth until the dental consult. Figures...the last test of the day.
It would have been nice to have had a bit more info before today as to how many tests there were going to be. (Wear comfortable walking shoes!) I don't actually talk to my Dr until Thursday. It would have been helpful to have met with one of my primary doctors or nurses today to kind of kick this whole thing off. I have plenty of questions, but no one to ask since the people I see now are mainly focused on the individual procedures. For example, my radiation treatments show up on the itinerary, but my chemo does not. No inidcation for when my central line gets placed. Oh well, we'll hope for the best someone will tell us eventually I guess.
It was a long day. We at a big supper and now I am relaxing back at the hotel. We have another full day tomorrow. I'll update again at the end of the day.
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