No PIC Line Today

Dear Fod's,

Thank you for all of the great posts today. Joe read them to me and they just made me howl. Rick your legal spin on the accused was hysterical. Of course, Joe should have invoked the 5th amendment rather than trying to explain his motives. Janet, technically, you were right and I had a stem cell transplant, which means that they took the stem cells from the donor's blood. But Dr. Porteruses the words interchangeably because the stem cells are found in the bone marrow. In a conventional transplant, the stem cells are havested from the bone marrow and not the blood -- does that make sense? I can just picture you and Jonathan going through this routine in front of a bunch of 3rd graders. Kris, I too can remember, not the day, but the exact moment that our eyes met across the room at the old ICU in Memorial Hospital and we became inseparable. All of those trips to Lake Michigan and Wendy's, and can you remember when my "car was too short" and fish net underwear and the mackeral? I have not viewed the video yet, but will after this post. Thank you for sending it. Edie, I remember too becoming fast friends with you. You the innocent, naive beauty and me the wild girl from the third floor. You have always been my best advice giver. How did I ever get through that first year? Who was that chemistry teacher who passed me with a "C" when I never passed a test for the entire year. He passed me because I promised to clean his apartment for an entire year! COD -- I always want to be part of your daily life and Saturday night sounded like such a blast. I too have a lot of friends with married kids and nice houses. Any takers out there? Good luck to the kids in school and good luck to Colin in football and Mere as the Class President. You are all such talented and creative writers, that I pale by comparison, but I used to make a mean chocolate chip cookie. What a great bunch of friends and what a great way to keep in touch!

I have dropped another 6 pounds of fluids today and definitely think that I am getting this part behind me. I am trying to eat small amounts of protien every 2-3 hours, i.e. yogurt, cheese slices, but am having trouble swallowing because I have mucousitis in my throat. It kept me up for most of the night. I made myself 3 cups of tea over the night with lemon, if I could only have some honey -- but alas that is one of the forbidden foods. I am doing hourly mouth care and hoepfully, this will prevent it from getting out of control. The nuitritionist came up today and marvelled at how well I am doing, my albumin level, i.e., protien is lower than normal but she said that after 5 days of not eating, that I was very proactive in trying to ingest as much protien as possible. If I can stay one step ahead of the mucousitis, I should be OK.

A new attending physician started today (they all take a 2 week rotation). Mo I think you and Bob had him, Ivan Millard. I think that he is wonderful, kind and patient. He explains everything. The big hero, Dr. Porter also stopped in today. Ivan and Dr. Porter conferred and they want infectious disease to see my line but they think that my central line is still OK because I have not had a fever. So we got a reprieve from the PIC line today. The bed side insertion does not worry me. However, the bedside removal of my 9 month old line is very scary. By now, it must be attached to something in there. The source of the infection was a uti and a bowel infection. Again, this happened because I have no white counts to fight any infection and I can become infected from my own body. At the first sign of another fever, my line is outta there and the PIC line will be inserted.

Everyone seems to be amazed at how well I am doing every day. So if I can just string a few good days together, I should be in good shape. They brought into the room what they call a "bike" which is really two pedals on a stand. I went from the Cadillac of all bikes in 7003 to a skateboard! Oh well. I did manage to use it for 20 minutes today.

I got platelets today and will probably need blood tomorrow. That always makes me feel more perky. Once again, thank you for all of your stories. I am so lucky to have you all in my life.

Love to all,

Debbie