Thursday, April 26

What a long, crazy day Kerrie and I had!

Our transportation to Henry Ford showed up 15 minutes early, so Mom had to rush around getting Kerrie ready while I tried to get myself ready.. then the traffic was so bad it took us well over an hour to get there, so we were late for her appointment.

They took her blood, and she relaxed in front of the funky new TV’s that had been installed in the rooms. She was happy, since she had a TV, and didn’t mind that we would have to wait more than an hour for Dr. Jana to come in and let us know what her stats were.. but then the nurse came back in and said they had to do the bloodwork again. Her Hemoglobin was low, so they wanted to retest to make sure..

We waited and waited, but then it was time to go downstairs for her MRI.. I was just getting her standing when Dr. Jana walked in the room and asked what we were doing… after I told her we had 5 minutes to get to the MRI, she said we would need to come back afterwards.. OK.. we’ll be back.. and off we went.

Mom and I had been so careful to make sure she didn’t have any metal on her, but about 15 mintues into her MRI I remembered there was a small metal clip and ring on her Gal Bladder bag and I had visions of the drain being pulled right out of her body. I jumped up, ran to the door and started pouding on it. When the Tech answered the door , and I was panting “She has metal on her.. she has metal on her..” she just looked at me very confused.. after I explained it to her she said that there must not be a problem, because it would have happened immediatley , and Kerrie was almost done anyway. I spent the next 15 minutes sick to my stomache, with my hands shaking, until they asked me to come in and help get her off the table and back into her chair. Scariest 15 minutes I had to go through in months.

Then… back up to Dr. Jana’s office. Kerrie’s blood work has all dropped below normal levels, so they wanted to do some blood cultures. The nurse was having a very hard time getting her samples, since she couldn’t take it through the IV line, and made several very painful  attempts ( Painful for Kerrie.. and me). She finally called in Izzy, who was able to get the samples after a couple of tries. Poor Kerrie.. she already has tubes sticking out all over her body and now she has bandages all over the wrists and arms from where they tried to take her blood.

Because all her blood levels were so low, they decided to give her a transfusion so we settled in for a two hour wait while she received a blood transfusion. Kerrie was very happy when they told her that he blood type was still A- but I was extremely disappointed. I keep telling her this is one fight she has to let me win, but she’s being stubborn. They day they tell us she’s A+ I’m throwing a big party.  I know she wants to keep as much of “herself” as she can.. but darn it woman.. you have to be my twin and I really just wish you would hurry up!

Although her blood counts and platellets were all low, they said this was not due to the Luekemia. Her Bone Marrow Biopsy shows no signs of Luekmia, but they are still working on the cell count to find out how much of the marrow is mine.. and how much is still hers. The feel the drop in her counts is either due to an infection ( which is why they did the blood cultures) or may be due to some of the medication she was on. They stopped that medication last week so, if this is the case, her blood work she be in the normal range by next week. To be safe, they are sending someone out to the house on Monday, to take her blood. If her counts are still down, she will need to go to Henry Ford on Monday for another transfusion. If they are ok, she’ll go for her regular appointment next Friday. We’re hoping she can just go Friday.. she has to go that day, for an MRI for her Gal Bladder Surgery, so we only want to have to make one trip next week. I have pleaded with Mom to remember the clip on the Gal Bladder bag.. since that is the area they will be scanning, it will be far more dangerous to have that clip and ring on there. I don’t think we’ll forget this time.

Once they transfusion was done, they sent us to get Kerrie some chest X-rays. She’s had a horrible cough, so they want to check things out.

Our “normal” day turned into almost 9 hours at Henry Ford. We got home at 6:30 and, by that time, Kerrie had been out of bed for 12 hours.. you cannot imagine how exhausted she was. It’s a good thing we didn’t drive ourselves.. I don’t think we would have been able to get in and out of the car.

Once I got her into bed it was time to catch up on her meds. We had expected to be home by 2:00pm, so hadn’t taken them with us. I managed to get her 1:00pm meds done by 7:00pm, her 5:00pm meds done by 9:30pm, her 8:00meds done by 11:00pm and her 10:00pm meds were done by a little after midnight.

Crazy day…. the one good thing is that she was so exhausted she didn’t wake me at her normal 3:00am time.. slept straight through until 6:00am

Mom got home, a little after 6:00am this morning ( Friday) and she and Kerrie are now both sleeping downstairs. They don’t have to go to Rehab until 1:30pm today, so it gives them both a little time to sleep.

I have to hit the road.. have to be at work by 1:00pm and running late. I don’t want to leave.. it will be May 11th before I can come back and I am just sick at the thought of being gone that long. I haven’t gone that long, without seeng Kerrie, since last June.

I know she and Mom will be alright.. but I’m not sure I will be. I may need to make a drive up, and back, all in one night.. just so I can tell her I love her.

Jenn