08/23/09 Forth Week of Treatment

08/23/09 So it has been quite a week, Monday after we came back from the Stem Cell Clinic I told you that Joe was starting to get very ill, well that night he continued to get worse he was having many bouts of diarrhea and getting very weak and dizzy but still did not have a fever. I was giving him Imodium every couple of hours. We fell asleep around 1:00 am, and I told Joe if he had to get up to make sure he woke me because he was getting wobbly on his feet and I had to help him walk the last time. Well he didn't and he tried to get to the bathroom on his own and he ended up falling as soon as he got out of bed. I woke up to this big crash and to find Joe on the bedroom floor, he had bumped his head on the side of the bed. He was very disoriented for a few seconds. I was half out of my mind, first to be woke up to that loud crash and then to find Joe on the floor. I start screaming for my sister Lorrie who is out sleeping in the living room, and all she can hear is me crying out Joes name, I scared her half to death. This all happened at 3:30 am, so we get Joe up and check him over and he is ok just a little red rub mark on the side of his head no bump thank God. Get him back to bed, Lorrie goes back to her bed and I get in bed with Joe now at this point I am not going to go back to sleep and I am getting up at 5:00 am anyways we need to be back at the stem cell clinic by 8:00. Joe falls asleep and seems to have finally stopped with the diarrhea. At 5:00 I get up to get in the shower, Joe is sound asleep, still I tell him not to get out of the bed without help and he says that he feeling a little better and will not get up without me. So I jump in the shower, wash as fast as I can and I get out and go and check on Joe, good still in bed. He ask me for a ginger ale and I leave to go get it and I am in the kitchen and I hear a big crash again, I go running and find Joe on the bathroom floor I just about lose it at this point I am so upset I want to cry, I feel like I am going to breakdown and I again scream for Lorrie. This time it is a little worst he has hit the tile floor and the tub. His leg is bleeding, he said he did not hit his head but more or less fell into the tub because he was trying to catch himself. Ok now I am worried with Joes bleeding problem and the cut on the leg not to bad but there is a big bump behind it. Also I am not totally convinced that he did not hit his head. Well I am not going to take any chances so I call the doctor to see if I should bring him into the emergency room. Now remember that Boston Medical Center is made up of couple separate hospitals and medical facilities. They have already told me if I need to bring him to a emergency room I need to go to the East Newton Hospital but I need to call the doctor first so they can call ahead to get a sterile room ready for Joe who has no immune system left. Well I go over everything with the doctor and she pretty sure that Joe is one dehydrated again from all the diarrhea, two his blood pressure is very low from being dehydrated which is causing all the dizziness and light headiness. We discuss his leg and the bleeding has stopped. Well we make the decision by the time we call a ambulance get to the hospital emergency room, get a separate room and wait on the docs and attending docs that we are probably better off bringing him straight to the Moakley Bldg to the Stem Cell Transplant Clinic were he can be examined by his own doctors. So I get Joe washed up and dressed because he is to weak to do it himself and Lorrie and I have to both walk him to the elevator and down to the parking garage. Once we get to the Moakley Bldg we grab a wheel chair for Joe. Well sure enough he is dehydrated and blood pressure is extremely low so they start the fluids ASAP and they check out his leg and the rest of his body from the fall all is ok, his leg has a major abrasion on it. The decision is made immediately that Joe will be admitted to the hospital. Well a few other factors weighed into why he was so weak when they got his blood results back just overnight all Joe's levels dropped to just about zero. We spent the most of the day at the Stem Cell Clinic waiting for a private room to open up over at Newton. Which was ok because the Stem Cell Clinic is like a miniature hospital and Joe has his own nurse and his doctors are right there. Poor Joe is still having constant diarrhea and the doctors are getting concerned that it may be more than just the effects of Chemo so they do a culture. In the mean time we are transferred by ambulance to Newton which is strange because it is only two bldgs over we probably could of walked and got there faster. So they get Joe in his room and by this time Joe is so wiped out. They start him on IV's and the whole night every hour Joe is having to be helped to the bathroom and he is just getting weaker. Lorrie and me stay the night with him sleeping in chairs, I am right up next to the bed because I am still freaked out from him falling and he is still being so impulsive and just trying to get out of the bed by himself when he can't even hold his self up. The results come back and Joe has a bacterial infection in his intestines called C-Dif. So this is adding to the side effects of chemo. The next three days not much changes he just seems like he is not going to get better, he is sleeping around the clock only getting up to use the bathroom, which is about every hour. I stay at the hospital only leaving to come back to the apartment to shower, I send Lorrie back to stay at the apartment to keep things going there for me and to help me with things when I come home to shower. Lorrie would of stayed at the hospital with me but Joe is so sick he only wants me with him. I call my brother Tom to come one day early to help out so he could stay with Joe when I leave because he is so weak I don't want to leave him alone. I send my sister and brother home on Friday, Joe is starting to show some improvement and Lorrie has been here almost two weeks. On Friday Joe's counts start to come up a little, .003, Saturday they are up to 400 and Sunday 800. It was great to watch the improvement in him, the doctors & nurses kept telling me that as soon as his white count started to come up he would improve quickly. We get to leave the hospital on Sunday Joe is still very weak but a lot better than he was and the diarrhea is still constant, he is on meds for the infection but it is going to take about a week for it to start working. He is eating very little and I am trying to keep him drinking fluids so he does not get dehydrated again. The nurses and doctors said I did a great job with him at the hospital, he only wanted me and I was trying to keep him from giving up and to stay focus on getting better. It will be great to sleep in a bed tonight and not a chair bed like I have for the last five nights but you do what you gotta do for the one you love. Well back to our normal routine tomarrow, Moakley Bldg to the stem cell clinic. Joe is doing pretty good since we got back to the apartment today, we are getting ready for bed we both hope to get a goodnights sleep. We love you and God bless, we are half way there.