SURGERY!!!

 Hanna had surgery today!  Hopefully it's the only surgery she'll need.  Details below.


Today is the fourth day of pretty much the same thing.  Get up early. Run to the Mayo Clinic (three minutes and 55 seconds per my GPS, but really takes 45 minutes if you count getting loaded into the car, fighting traffic & pedestrians, finding parking, getting through security, and wheeling Hanna down the long hallways until we arrive at her appointment desk, hopefully early). Get shot.  Talk to nurse.  Go back home.  The Growth Factor (aka Nivestym) made Hanna drowsy.  So I took a few pictures of what she and Frivvy did after the shot.  Here you go:





And I watched a lot of football...............🏈


It is fairly foggy here most mornings, especially early.



Hanna remains in good spirits, even while waiting for her Growth Formula shot, which is administered in the stomach.



The wall in her surgical prep and recovery room today.  Happy to see Jesus.  (This is called the Methodist Campus of Mayo Clinic.)


I was kept informed of her progress via Email updates.

The Scoop:

Day -13 thru Day - 11 (aka Saturday the 17th thru Monday the 19th)

Growth Factor shot in the morning.  The rest of the day off.  We drove up to the St Paul Temple on Saturday.  Found a Church to attend on Sunday.  And actually drove to Houston County and found a Geocache including a short hike on Monday.

Day -10 (Tuesday the 20th)

The usual growth factor shot in the morning.  But this time afterwards, the blood nurse came in with her computer and needles and vials and took a few samples of blood.  The purpose is to see just how many stem cells are now swimming around in Hanna's blood.

Right after that, she went into surgery to have her port inserted into her shoulder/chest/heart.  She will have this for the duration of our time here and it will be used to extract stem cells, give transfusions, take blood samples, and even hook an IV to it.  Now she has plastic tubes sticking out of her chest.  And very cool blue sketches that the surgeon made.  (Cool pictures below).  An X-ray was next to make sure the port was positioned in just the right place, near her heart (kind of like where I'm placed.)

NOTE:  I thought a picture of the port may be too intimate.  But Hanna insisted and even posed for it.  She was able to do it and maintain her modesty.

Finally we went to another class with two other couples that are having the same procedure about the same time we are.  This time the nurse went over, in great detail, the Chemotherapy Treatment, Transplant itself, and Engraphment (the stem cells produce new clean cancer-free blood).  This included a tour of the transplant wing of the hospital.  Cheery staff as always.

The results of the blood sample taken this morning came back.  The stem cell measurement must be 20 or higher for the SCT to be successful.  Hanna's reading was "less than 10".  This caused alarm at first and we wondered for just a bit if they would end up sending us home for more Chemo.  But a call to the Transplant nurse set us straight.  He explained that this reading is fairly typical and nothing alarming.  The Stem Cell harvest will begin tomorrow as expected and scheduled.  But, we will need to go back in tonight for a strong "booster shot" to coax more stem cells out.

Folks, we try to be light-hearted and fun with everything we do, including this blog.  But the process right now is quite stressful and real.  The next few days would be a great time to pray that the Transplant Team is able to harvest enough stem cells to have a successful transplant.  Thanks.

PHASE 2:  COMPLETE AND APPARENTLY SUCCESSFUL!


Next up, starting at 7am tomorrow, will be the harvest of stem cells.  We need 6 million of the little buggers to have a successful transplant.  They have scheduled the next three days to do just that.  But will stop when we reach 6 million.  Or will extend the process through the weekend if need be to get to 6 million.  Either way.  They are very determined to get this done.

I asked the nurse what the Mayo World Record is for the most stem cells collected from a person in one day.  15 million.  We can beat that..............you watch!



TODAY'S MIRACLE:  Every day here has been incredibly full and exhausting.  But, as blessings would have it, both Saturday and Sunday afternoons were free. This allowed us to soak up the spirit and peace found in church services and worshipping in our temple.  You may think "hey, the doctors just wanted their weekend free."  Sure, that may be.  But the timing allowed us to find peace and rest, which is an incredible blessing and we'll count it as a miracle.


Hanna's Two Bits:

I am so grateful for all the miracles and good we have experienced the past couple of weeks, and I first give God the praise.  Then Greg for his vigilant concern.  And then the Mayo team: nurses, doctors, assistants, etc.

Today a surgical resident pushed my bed from pre-op into the operating room and in the process ran the bed into a door and knocked the door out of kilter, giving us both a good laugh.  (She had warned me she’s a bad bed “driver” but that doesn’t reflect on her surgical precision. LOL)

It just goes to show that even surgeons are human, and that humility probably makes them better at their profession.

For several days I’ve been nervous about getting this Central Line placed in my Jugular vein. Sunday during worship service an 11-year-old boy said something that took away my fear.  When asked who his favorite hero from the Old Testament portion of the Bible is, he said:

“David.  Because he shows us that no matter how big our challenge, we can overcome it with the help of the Lord.”

David, the boy who eliminated the giant bully, Goliath.

We can overcome the giants in our lives with the help of God.

Such truth from a child.

Yes.

I can do this with God's help.

And so can you!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE BAD DAY (NIGHT) FINALLY ARRIVED

Image
Here is the lovely Miss Hanna at about 1am this morning, trying to figure out what sort of dinner her system will handle.  The softer the better.  Taste doesn't matter any more as her taste buds have been eliminated by the Chemotherapy Drug. Until today, our daily routine was, check in at the Transplant Clinic.  Get examined and consulted by a variety of medical professionals.  Go back home.  And usually that was it.  If something were to be wrong with the blood tests, etc., they would call and have us come back in for treatment. The closest we ever came to the "call back in" was a week ago Sunday when her Potassium levels had dropped drastically, likely caused by the extreme hydration during the transplant itself.  They had us come back to the Clinic to pick up some Potassium tablets at the Pharmacy. That all changed yesterday. They called and asked us to come back in as her platelets had dropped drastically.  The nurse told us to finish our lunc...
Read more

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE BEAUTIFUL

Image
 The hair loss was expected and was eventually going to happen.  Happy Early Halloween!! THE GOOD:  This week the Transplant Team here at Mayo Clinic is celebrating their 10,000th transplant.  They were pretty excited.  Amazing to us was the fact that their very first Transplant patient from 60 years ago is still alive and was going to attend the party.  Note that none of us current patients, even the 10,000th, are invited.  Every one of us is immunocompromised and if someone brought in an infection or virus, the entire staff would be very busy for a long time.  But we can say we were there when number 10,000 took place.  We are in very good hands.  The average employee tenure here is 14 years.  Many we meet have been here for over 20 years.  Most of the doctors did their initial fellowship here and are still here decades later.  Having the right specialist, a doctor that does nothing but MM, is key to a proper recovery an...
Read more

TOXIC WASTE!!

Image
Hanna is doing well and appears to be on track to a miraculous recovery.  In this picture, please notice her beautiful hair. The cool chart below (cool, because us accountants LOVE charts like this) shows the level of misery the transplant causes and when.  The numbers are days.  The more the line drops, the more misery.  They call the bottom the "basement".  We are right now on Day 8.  Yes, in the basement. And even though we are in the basement, Hanna is doing quite well.  Things are not nearly as bad as other MM patients that have gone before us have said they would be, nor as bad as the Transplant Team prepared us for.  This is all good.  The main symptoms Hanna (and me too, indirectly) have and are struggling with is massive fatigue and EXPLOSIVE TOXIC DIARRHEA.  She spends a lot of time sleeping, although some days are better than others.  Her endurance level has dropped significantly as well.  It is a struggle for her to...
Read more