Finally! An update

Ok, so Joe has added me (KP) as a blogger so that I can keep everyone up-to-date while he's busy being a professor, and hopefully between the two of us we can keep ya'll informed on what's going on, which in the next few weeks will be alot.

So, since the last post you know that I went through a "consolidation" round of chemo, and was released to go home. Since then I've had a few complications, the first being the prednisolone eye drops I was given to protect my eye from the chemo. I was starting to get blurry vision, and the doc said I could stop the drops. Well, the next day I could barely open my eyes, and I went to the Moran Eye Center Triage. There, they gave me a full eye exam, learned about the effects of cytarabine on the eyes and diagnosed me with extremely dry eyes. So, I am now on a constant regimen of eye drops (like once an hour). But my eyes are feeling much better now and my vision seems to be clearing up.

Unfortunately this eye issue overshadowed another, more serious complication, that of my arm hurting where they had put in the midline. It had hurt in the hospital, and since it's removal has hurt less and less, but I noticed that my veins were popping out when I used the arm. Well, I didn't stress over it until 9pm Friday night (good timing) and so Joe and I went into the ER for 3 hours, but they didn't have an ultrasound tech on-call, so long story short, I went back with my parents on Saturday (another 6 hours) and finally got an ultrasound that showed a blot clot from basically the point of insertion up to the sub-clavical vein (like the whole length of the midline). So, that means I need to go on blood thinners, but because of the chemo, I have low platelets levels which means I now have to navigate a tight rope between getting the blood thinners and maintaining platelet levels.

So, after all of that time spent in the ER, Sunday morning I wake up with a fever and get checked back into Huntsman. It's a bit of a bummer, but now they can manage the whole blood thinner/platelet level issue without much trouble. My platelet level is being checked twice a day, and I get a couple of lovanox shots (blood thinners) each day in the tummy fat which are stingy and make big bruises. I actually managed to give myself the injection before we came into Huntsman on Sunday, and have been self-administering daily shots of nuepogen (stimulates white blood cells), something that I never thought I would be able to do (and it's not so horrible). Though it is nicer to have a nurse do it so I can look away and cringe.

They have me on antibiotics, but my fevers seem to come and go, however I'm feeling better than I did yesterday. I'll be staying here until my white blood count is high enough to let me leave with some sort of immune system. My room # is 4509 and my cell phone actually works in this room!