Mobilization Recap from Tulane

Hi guys....

We're back home.  Dom feels great.  

Let me update you on our week......

Dom spent Tuesday and Wednesday night at Tulane for the "mobilization" process.  

TUESDAY:

On Tuesday morning, he had outpatient surgery.  They put a "central line" in his chest, underneath his collarbone.  

He was immediately moved up to the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit.  Took a chest xray to be certain that the line was in the correct place.  (As it turns out, it was about 1 inch too deep, and had entered his heart).  Then, they gave him CYTOXAN for 9 hours.  This was the "conditioning chemotherapy.  Along with that, they gave him a 24 hour drip of MESNA, which is a drug that protects the bladder from bleeding from the chemo.

When I had spoken to Dom from Linda's house at about 9:30 pm, he felt great.

WEDNESDAY:

I got to the hospital around 9am to see that he was a mess.  He was up all night.  Nuaseated.  He tried to force himself to eat a little breakfast.   The little bit of scrambled eggs that he forced down turned into flying projectiles.  This nausea lasted for most of the day.  His fingers and toes got cramps.  And get this....  he was "hallucinating" the night before.  (Tuesday Night)  Every time that he'd close his eyes, he'd see faces, things melting, etc...  sounded like a bad acid trip.  So, the poor honey stayed up all night watching TV, so as to avoid the mental images.

Eventually, the nausea subsided (with the help of ZOFRAN), but he still did not eat anything all day/night.  (picked at a hamburger for dinner).

THURSDAY:

I arrived at Tulane at 7:00AM to find him sitting in a chair watching tv.  He felt GREAT.  Had eaten half of his breakfast!  What a flippin' relief.  Christ, I was happy to see him smile.

One of Dr. Safa's "fellows" came in and pulled his central line out of his chest by about 1 inch.  When I asked him if the line in his heart might create problems for him, he assured me that it was no big deal.  A small tube would do no damage.  Told me to imagine the size of a pacemaker that is inserted in the heart without problems.  So.... that was good news.

Dom will be getting daily injections of LEUKINE.  This is the drug that moves the stem cells from the bone marrow into the blood stream for collection.  They showed me how to do it.  (very much like an insulin shot-  I can just poke him in the gut!)

They finally got around to discharging him sometime after 2pm.  (He was fully dressed and ready to blow out of there at around 8:30 am).

During the day, they lined up Home Health for us.  The gals will "flush his line" and re-dress it every few days.  

Along with his discharge papers, he was given 3 new prescriptions:  CIPRO (an Antibiotic), ACYCLOVIR (an Anti-Viral) and FLUCONAZOLE (an Anti-Fungal).  Apparently within 7 days, Dom's immune system will be compromised.... thus these drugs.