Tuesday, 20th January

Day 21 - Stem Cell Transplant

As promised, I said I would update the blog each evening to keep you all in the loop.  Today went very well.  Allot of new things to learn and take in but in a day or two we will both be professionals at this.

Jimmy was in theatre for an hour while they put his Hickman line in and then while he was in recover they did some chest xrays.  This is just to make sure that he is fit for the heavy dose of chemo he will be having.  He was a little bit uncomfortable afterwards, complaining that his neck felt painful and stiff on the right have side but Dr Fine was in to see him about 2 hours after the operation and she says that this is normal and by tomorrow he will be aware of the Hickman line but it won't bother him like it is today.  It did bleed quite a bit once he was back in his insolation ward but the sister didn't seem too worried about this.  The most important thing is to keep it clean and infection free so it has already been cleaned and used to take 3 huge syringes of blood which means that it is working too.

Jimmy's new office



A close up of the Hickman Line



Jimmy's ward in F4 is much bigger than I thought it would be but I still think it is more like a cubicle.  I will take some photos tomorrow so you can all see what it looks like.  But basically each patient is kept completely separate from the others.  There are 6 isolation wards in total.  Once Jimmy is in he cannot leave.  It consists of 2 rooms; the first has all the medical supplies and fridges etc.  You enter this, close the door, wash your hands twice and then enter his ward (the 2nd room) and close the door behind you.  He has a state of the art bed, a lazy boy, a desk, 2 cupboards and chest of drawers and his own on-suite bathroom.

I have to go into the change rooms when I get there and undress to underwear and then put on scrubs and covers over my shoes.  Jimmy is assigned a sister and she is the only one that sees to him.  She also does not see to anyone else so that there is no bug sharing.


My new uniform.



 

Dr Fine explained to us today that he will get chemo tomorrow and Thursday (Melphalan) and then they will do the transplant on Friday (put back one bag of his frozen stem cells).  She says it will take about a week and then his eg white blood count will drop to 1.  She has already prepared us for the fact that he will get some kind of infection as his body just won't be strong enough.  He will also go off his food and force feeding him will cause him to vomit so they will feed him intravenously.  I dietitian will come and see him tomorrow and apart from the 3 meals a day that he gets in hospital he will have 3 to 4 shakes a day to build him up a bit now for when he can't eat.  His food has to be heated to 200 degrees - no wonder he won't feel like eating....I don't think there will be much taste left after a nook like that!

I am very impressed with the whole set up.  I spoke to the hospital manageress today and she organised a monthly parking fee for me at R60 instead paying the daily R7 if I get the parking ticket stamped.  She also said that if there is no parking available that I should driver up to the top parking and she has given me a number to phone and they will come and collect me and drop me at the front door.  She explained that when Jimmy is at his worst I am more than welcome to sleep over if he wants me to.

So....for now this is about all the information that I know.  Jimmy is in good spirits.  He has already sent me a message to say that he is really missing me. 

And just so that you know we haven't lost our sense of humour yet.....