October 26, 2003
Friends,
Good evening. Today has been kind of a crazy day. They told me yesterday that they would call me to tell me when to come in to the hospital today. I waited until 10:00am and hadn't heard anything, so I called the BMT Unit. They told me not to come in until 3pm or so. We packed most of my stuff in the car, and just watched football for the rest of the morning. My brother got tired of that and decided to go to a store. He drove my jeep. A little while later, he called and told me that the transmission had failed in my jeep and he was at a nearby intersection. We had my jeep towed to the hospital parking lot, where we are using it for storing our belongings. I will get it repaired after I am out of the hospital again. I checked into the hospital a little after 3. They quickly hooked me up to some IVs for hydration. The chemo wasn't started until about 8:30pm. We are about half way through that now. This is the start of one of the most dangerous things I have ever done. In addition, we heard about all the fires burning in San Diego tonight. We are worried about our house and our family, as well as all our friends and family members who live in the area. Many of the nurses and staff here at the hospital live in the area of the fires burning here in the LA area. We hope they get all the fires out soon. I won't be able to send this message until my computer gets approved by the hospital, so don't blame your ISP if you don't get it until sometime Monday or Tuesday.
On the medical front, I am getting about 200ml of Melphalan. They wear gowns to hook it up, and put a protective cover over my arm where the catheter joins the IV tube. It is pretty nasty stuff, and it is getting pumped directly into the vicinity of my heart. Before starting the Melphalan, I also got a dose of Zofran, which is the anti-nausea medicine. I will be getting hydration all night, plus I will be getting Cyclosporine. This is an immune suppressant that is used to prevent Graft Versus Host disease. I don't have a copy of my lab work that was drawn earlier today.
Until tomorrow!
Ted
tw@wilcoxent.com