Monday, April 23, 2012

Monday - Day 1-4

Well, today is the big day.  The first day of round 4 of biochemo.  Monday's are always sooooo long.  Here is an idea of how Monday's go:

6:30 Wake up and shower, dress, etc
7:00 Wake up kids and get kids ready
7:30 Take kids to daycare
7:40 Pack Steve and my stuff for the week (yes, I waited till the morning of)
8:15 Pack up car
8:30 Get on the road
8:45 Grab a quick breakfast and get back on the road
9:30 Check into Steve's first appointment to have his pic line put in
10:00 Steve gets called back to get pic line put in
12:00 Steve is finished getting pic line in
12:05 Check in to get Xray to be sure pic line is in the proper place
12:15 Get Xray
12:20 Go back to pic line department to wait for Xray results
12:25 Xray results fine
12:30 Check in for blood draw
1:00 Get blood drawn
1:10 Catch shuttle back to main building
1:15 Grab lunch in the cafeteria
2:15 Check in for appointment with Dr. Kim (Steve's Melanoma doctor)
3:00 Get called back to see Dr Kim
4:00 Finally see Dr. Kim
4:45 Go to car and get all of our stuff
5:00 Get to room, rearrange room, and unpack all of our stuff
6:15 Grabbed dinner
9:30 Just getting started on some pre-meds

Mondays are long, exhausting, lots of walking, lots of waiting, and just overall blah!

Ok, enough complaining.

We always see Dr. Kim before Steve is admitted to discuss the last round, what has gone on between rounds, etc.  For those of you following the blog, you know that Steve did not do too well after his last round.  He ended up having to have 2 platelet transfusions (I have an appointment to donate tomorrow at 3:00 pm!), his white blood cell count was extremely low, and his hemoglobin was very low.  After looking over his labs today, the platelets and white blood cell counts look great!  The hemoglobin is still very low which is probably causing Steve's extreme fatigue.  It is at a 9 and they transfuse at anything under 8.  So, since they draw labs every night, there is a high likely hood that he will end up getting a blood transfusion at some point while we are here.  Dr. Kim also wanted to try and prevent a repeat of the last round, so he decided to drop the Vinblastine (1 of the chemo's) from the treatment this cycle.  Dr. Kim feels that this is the least effective drug of the 5 and should help his white blood cell count, platelet count, etc not get so low. If his counts continue to drop, Dr. Kim may lower the dosage of some of the meds for rounds 5 and 6.  We will see how this round goes and also how the scans look before round 5.

Steve waiting to get started. 

It is 9:45 pm and one of our favorite nurses (Jeff) is in starting Steve's meds.  So, round 1 is officially underway.

8 comments:

  1. You might like being compared to our grandmother right now, but oh well...you look like Granny in this picture! Keep up the fight and good luck with round four! As always, you guys are in my thoughts and prayers!

    Heath

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  2. I love that Steve always seems to have a smile on his face regardless of the obstacles.

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  3. It's that goofy "no teeth" smile he does! Haha! Thanks, Heath!

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  4. Thanks, Fidoz! We try and think positive and stay positive. Being negative definitely isn't going to help a bit :)

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  5. Saying a prayer tonight. Love you both

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  6. Always smiling...one tough fighter!! Love you guys!! Prayers being said!! Love y'all!! Brenda

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  7. Go Team Martin! The Saints are going to want to sign Steve after this fight. You guys have a lot of cheerleaders out here, just remember that. Lots of prayers and love going your way.

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  8. Thank you, Susan, Brenda and Renee! Love you all!

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