A Room with a View Part 2

(Most of you did not get notice of the previous posting because I’m working on my new laptop and had to generate a new Group email list,)

The view was incredible: eastward I could see the south part of Husky Stadium; all the way across Lake Washington; the 520 Bridge and southward; the Bellevue skyline; the sunrise. It was such a wonderful room - but hopefully my memory of it will fade quickly because today I had to move. Turns out that room was one of only two special rooms with a special air circulation system needed as an extra precaution for some infectious patients and its use for that is the priority. So now I have a view down a street with lots of trees and the tops of some UW buildings: not so bad. What I miss more is the openness of that room because it was more wheelchair friendly. Anyway, the rest of the protocol is the same.

So, I’m at University Hospital in Room 8248; phone, 206-598-3921 and this will be my home for the next several weeks (three is the minimum). I am getting used to a new way of numbering days: today is Day -5 and I will continue having chemo drugs infused through Day -1; on Day 0 my stem cells will be infused; on Day 2 or so, my blood cell counts will actually be at their lowest and I can expect transfusions of platelets; Day 4 is when many transplant patients come down with mucositis – “the painful inflammation and ulceration of the mucous membranes lining the digestive tract” (Wikipedia) – including the mouth. Doctors, nutritionists, oral health specialists, etc. have told me about it. Some people’s mouths and throats are so painful they must get all their nutrition and their meds through an IV. Some people get only a mild case or don’t get it at all. (I’d be happy to be one of those people!)

Blood tests are done daily. For a while there will be no white blood cells – the infection fighters. Somewhere after Day 14 (might be sooner but I don’t have the info here) these cells appear and then their numbers grow exponentially. Meds have been given from Day -6 to try to prevent bacterial, viral, and fungal infections and all sorts of precautions are taken, but complicating infections are not uncommon. Here’s more information than you may want to know, but it is prayer-worthy: because I have an indwelling urinary catheter, I will be at greater risk for infection. I’ll be drinking like a fish and downing the cranberry capsules recommended by my urologist, but with absolutely no infection fighting cells in my body, it might take a miracle.

Anyway, I’ll be at the hospital until my counts reach a critical number AND I am infection free. In this room with a view of the street, the UW, and the sun setting sky.