Countdown Has Started

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Work and Doprah

It has been quite a week.  Work has been brutally busy and stressful. I started work at 5 AM twice this past week so I could get caught up on some projects; which helped, but some of the lower priority stuff I need to get done has been pushed aside for now.

Last night, Pam caught me up on the big news and I was in bed by 9 PM after watching part of Lance Armstrong's "Doprah" confession. I feel so duped by that guy... I really wanted to believe his whole story. Go to twitter and look at #doprah if you are into that sort of thing. What a shame.

It is now 3:30 AM and I'm wide awake, so thought I might as well update everyone on the big news,

Transitioning

Pam had an office visit with Dr. Weinstein yesterday and found out she is out of the woods from her final round of outpatient chemo.  Her white blood count is still low, but not dangerously low, so we have to be careful, but she can go out in public without wearing a mask and we can relax a bit.  It looks like we accomplished our goal of keeping her out of the hospital this time!

Her appointment with Dr. Weinstein yesterday will be her last one for quite a while.  Her care is now transitioning to Dr. Holtan at OHSU and she will remain under Dr. Holtan's care until she recovers from her transplant.  I feel bad about missing Pam's appointment yesterday. It has been quite a journey with Dr. Weinstein since July, and I wanted to thank him in person for saving Pam's life.  I think I will drop him an email.  He is a great guy.

A Schedule At Last

We finally have a schedule for the transplant. Barring the unforseen, she will be admitted for the transplant on Sunday Feb. 3rd.  Beginning on Monday, Feb. 4th, she will have a new central catheter line inserted, begin what will hopefully be a last round of chemotherapy, and start radiation therapy. We will find out exactly how many radiation treatments she will be receiving after she consults with the nuclear medicine specialist, but we know that it will be around nine treatments. The transplant will occur on Wednesday, Feb. 13th. 

There is a convention for tracking all of this like a space launch: Feb. 3rd will be T-10 (ten days prior to the transplant), Feb 13th is Day 0, Feb 14th is T +1, etc.  We expect that Pam will be in the hospital for six weeks, so she may be discharged the week of March 11th.

All of this may slip by one week, but it looks like the Feb 3rd admission and Feb 13th transplant dates are pretty good bets.

Betty is the triage nurse for Dr. Holtan and has put up an online calendar with a schedule of all of Pam's appointments next week that need to happen in preparation for the transplant.  I have recited this before, but she needs consults with respiratory therapy, nuclear medicine, social work, an EKG, echocardiogram, a bone marrow biopsy, and some more blood tests among other things.

So, today, Saturday, Jan. 19th is either T-25 (25 days to the transplant) or D+1 (1 day after Doprah).  Back to bed.