Can you believe that it has only been a week since my transplant? It feels like it's been forever! My mouth sores have gotten worse so they hooked me up to a PCA which allows me to control pain medicine. I'm grateful that they didn't wait a week to do this like Queens hospital did. They have switched my meds to liquid form so now I have to bear the taste of medicine...yuck! It beats having to swallow 5 pills when drinking water is already too painful.
Nana has been taking care of me :). We watched Modern Family and a movie last night. Watching comedy helped me get distracted from my sores. I started painting a waterfall yesterday and Ian is showing me how to get as much color in the water as possible...so he made me use every color but blue to make the water. I wasn't able to go to his art class today because they have me hooked up all day to monitor my oxygen levels since they gave me the PCA. I meet up with him again later this week so he can show me how to do the cliff and background colors. I really painting and I'm a lot better at it than I ever expected to be!
I haven't been able to eat anything today...It hurts to chew and it reallly hurts to swallow.
My dad told me he is going to buy me a car! We have been texting all day and looking at craigslist for good deals. So far i have found a cute Mazda 6 for sale and a Honda element (like my momma has!) it is going to be strange having a car again! It has been since high school that I had a car... And I won't need to use it too much cause there is a shuttle and my bike which can take me to MD Anderson since parking is soooooo expensive! We are looking for a good roadtripping Car :) I'm so excited! Me and Cassidy have been talking for years now about doing a cross country road trip! I get giddy just thinking about it :)
I'm sooooooo excited for Christmas time! Chelsea is coming to Houston from the 27th of December to jan 07! Also my cousin Ale told me she might be here during Christmas break as well. AND my friend Contessa (since middle school) is planning on driving here for winter break too! OH I'm so excited to see them all!!it will be weird not being home for Christmas for the first time but I have family here and I'll be surrounded by friends and family :). It is very nice having these events to look forward to. The doc said that as my counts go up my mouth will heal...he said in possibly a couple of days or so. Please send me positive energy with healing words and hope that they disappear soon so I can eat!
I love you all and will chat again soon :)
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Monday, September 26, 2011
Mouth sores round two
Day +6.
So about a couple of days ago I noticed that my throat was sore...and sure enough, even with all my mouth care, mouth sores have formed again. Luckily they aren't on my uvula but they are sitting in my esophagus where the sun never shines (and my mouth wash doesn't hit) So, I'm back on a liquid diet :( even drinking water hurts...so far the only thing that doesn't hurt is ice cream. unfortunately ice cream doesn't fill me up like a real meal does :(
Cassidy had the last four days off from work and he was planning on spending his four day weekend here. but of course he had to get sick and stayed home all weekend so he didn't get me sick. what terrible timing! luckily nana is here and we have been hanging out this whole time :) Mom just left for Hawaii and she will be gone for 10 days. It's gonna be weird not having her around! Nana is here until the following monday. My Dad is still working in Clear Lake but he's been very busy (and sick) so I haven't seen much of him lately.
Me and mom got our first painting lessons last week and i've been painting up a storm! I've really enjoyed painting with watercolor and acrylics. I get my second lesson today :) yesterday i spent the whole day painting a picture for nana and it came out pretty good! it really helps the time pass quickly.
I will hopefully be here for just 2 more weeks but it all depends on my counts. I'll probably get platelets tomorrow but my wbc and hemoglobin have maintained their numbers quite well. I have seen a occupational therapist and physical therapist and they get me walking around and doing exercises. it's interesting being on the other side of therapy and also physical therapy for in-patients. the approach to each patient is different when compared to out-patients because it's more of a matter of preventing problems from occuring rather than working to fix the problems the patient has.
I'm doing fine in the hospita...just trying to manage my throat pain. Me and nana are going to go to BINGO tonight which volunteers hold twice a week. It's nice to have activities during the day which help the time pass.
I'll let you know if anything new happens in my life here...but I'm expecting it to be uneventful (which is good i suppose). I love you all :)
So about a couple of days ago I noticed that my throat was sore...and sure enough, even with all my mouth care, mouth sores have formed again. Luckily they aren't on my uvula but they are sitting in my esophagus where the sun never shines (and my mouth wash doesn't hit) So, I'm back on a liquid diet :( even drinking water hurts...so far the only thing that doesn't hurt is ice cream. unfortunately ice cream doesn't fill me up like a real meal does :(
Cassidy had the last four days off from work and he was planning on spending his four day weekend here. but of course he had to get sick and stayed home all weekend so he didn't get me sick. what terrible timing! luckily nana is here and we have been hanging out this whole time :) Mom just left for Hawaii and she will be gone for 10 days. It's gonna be weird not having her around! Nana is here until the following monday. My Dad is still working in Clear Lake but he's been very busy (and sick) so I haven't seen much of him lately.
Me and mom got our first painting lessons last week and i've been painting up a storm! I've really enjoyed painting with watercolor and acrylics. I get my second lesson today :) yesterday i spent the whole day painting a picture for nana and it came out pretty good! it really helps the time pass quickly.
I will hopefully be here for just 2 more weeks but it all depends on my counts. I'll probably get platelets tomorrow but my wbc and hemoglobin have maintained their numbers quite well. I have seen a occupational therapist and physical therapist and they get me walking around and doing exercises. it's interesting being on the other side of therapy and also physical therapy for in-patients. the approach to each patient is different when compared to out-patients because it's more of a matter of preventing problems from occuring rather than working to fix the problems the patient has.
I'm doing fine in the hospita...just trying to manage my throat pain. Me and nana are going to go to BINGO tonight which volunteers hold twice a week. It's nice to have activities during the day which help the time pass.
I'll let you know if anything new happens in my life here...but I'm expecting it to be uneventful (which is good i suppose). I love you all :)
Thursday, September 22, 2011
2 down, 98 days to go
It feels so good to be in the positive days now! Counting down has begun and I can't wait to be done with it all!
So transplant day was interesting. I got a little bag of cells that looked like blood and it only took about 30 minutes to do the transplant. I had to chew gum to help with the taste and smell of the preservative. there were about 5 doctors in my room standing and watching me as i say there and got my cells. it was a little unnerving because i got flushed, nauseous and anxious...and since they were all just watching me i felt too uncomfortable to throw up or do anything! I was very happy that it was over in a short time. Travis decided to re name me to either savannis, travannah, or jovannah traire rollins :P
A couple nights ago I woke up in excruciating pain in my uterus. Nothing would help it go away for decrease in pain so I called the nurse and they were able to give me some morphine for the pain. Luckily that worked and I was able to go back to sleep. The next day I felt crampy still but not as bad...however , i still had no idea what that pain was from. Well, it looks like I've started, what could be my last, period.....and man does it want to go out with a bang! this will be a week i will never forget and will never miss because Ive never had such cramps before! What's funny about it all is that my mom, who is supposed to be going through menopause, started her period a day before me...so i'm blaming her for all of this! I am very fortunate to be here because all the doctors and nurses are so quick to give me pain medications; they really don't want me to be in any sort of pain. :)
Me and mom went to an art lesson todaay about how to paint with water colors! I have to say that i learned a lot about it and was surprised at how much I liked it. I am working on a picture that is going to be both water color and acrylic paint. I'm excited to see him (the art teacher) again on monday :) we went up to the 24th floor, which is the highest floor, and painted in the observatory room. This floor is all windows and you can see all of Houston. I can't wait to go back tonight to check out downtown :) it was very peaceful up there and the perfect place to draw or paint.
Mom just left to go pick up nana who will be here for 10 days or so. Cassidy also has the entire weekend off so I will be surrounded this weekend by the people I love! I am hoping my dad will be able to come up this weekend as well.
I met with my occupational therapist and my physical therapist in the past two days. they gave me bands to work with to do exercises to keep me strong. i have to be aware of my platelet count because once they reach 20,000 then I'm at risk for an injury that won't heal. I need to set up a routine that will get me up and out of bed and walking around. My PT told me that doing 7 laps of the floor equals out to a mile. Hopefully I will be motivated to do more than a mile :)
My counts are dropping like they should be and I've felt a little fatigued from lack of RBC and whatnot. in about two weeks the doctors will be able to see if engraftment is occurring (that is a fancy word for my brother's cells are taking over mine). Slight graft versus host disease is expected to happen but they will make sure it is controlled and doesn't get worse. I will update you all on this when I hear more about how the transplant is progressing.
I love you all and will update later!
-sav
So transplant day was interesting. I got a little bag of cells that looked like blood and it only took about 30 minutes to do the transplant. I had to chew gum to help with the taste and smell of the preservative. there were about 5 doctors in my room standing and watching me as i say there and got my cells. it was a little unnerving because i got flushed, nauseous and anxious...and since they were all just watching me i felt too uncomfortable to throw up or do anything! I was very happy that it was over in a short time. Travis decided to re name me to either savannis, travannah, or jovannah traire rollins :P
A couple nights ago I woke up in excruciating pain in my uterus. Nothing would help it go away for decrease in pain so I called the nurse and they were able to give me some morphine for the pain. Luckily that worked and I was able to go back to sleep. The next day I felt crampy still but not as bad...however , i still had no idea what that pain was from. Well, it looks like I've started, what could be my last, period.....and man does it want to go out with a bang! this will be a week i will never forget and will never miss because Ive never had such cramps before! What's funny about it all is that my mom, who is supposed to be going through menopause, started her period a day before me...so i'm blaming her for all of this! I am very fortunate to be here because all the doctors and nurses are so quick to give me pain medications; they really don't want me to be in any sort of pain. :)
Me and mom went to an art lesson todaay about how to paint with water colors! I have to say that i learned a lot about it and was surprised at how much I liked it. I am working on a picture that is going to be both water color and acrylic paint. I'm excited to see him (the art teacher) again on monday :) we went up to the 24th floor, which is the highest floor, and painted in the observatory room. This floor is all windows and you can see all of Houston. I can't wait to go back tonight to check out downtown :) it was very peaceful up there and the perfect place to draw or paint.
Mom just left to go pick up nana who will be here for 10 days or so. Cassidy also has the entire weekend off so I will be surrounded this weekend by the people I love! I am hoping my dad will be able to come up this weekend as well.
I met with my occupational therapist and my physical therapist in the past two days. they gave me bands to work with to do exercises to keep me strong. i have to be aware of my platelet count because once they reach 20,000 then I'm at risk for an injury that won't heal. I need to set up a routine that will get me up and out of bed and walking around. My PT told me that doing 7 laps of the floor equals out to a mile. Hopefully I will be motivated to do more than a mile :)
My counts are dropping like they should be and I've felt a little fatigued from lack of RBC and whatnot. in about two weeks the doctors will be able to see if engraftment is occurring (that is a fancy word for my brother's cells are taking over mine). Slight graft versus host disease is expected to happen but they will make sure it is controlled and doesn't get worse. I will update you all on this when I hear more about how the transplant is progressing.
I love you all and will update later!
-sav
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
It's my BIRTHDAY!!!!
Hello everyone!
So TODAY is my big day...it is the day I get my new stem cells (courtesy of Travis) and start my new life post-cancer.
It has already been a week since I've been admitted into MD Anderson's hospital. I went in last Tuesday and started chemotherapy at 4:00 am the next day. I had three different drugs that were given to me at different times. The first was given to me for an hour (it begins with a F but I can never remember the name). After that I received Clorafarabine (i think?) for another hour and then finished off with 3 hours of Bulsofan; this is the drug that will most likely be the reason why I may be infertile now. I immediately felt the effects of the chemo that early morning. I was sick all morning unti 2:00 pm when I finially started to feel myself again. I'm just happy that I didn't have a continuous dose of chemo this time around. I had these three drugs given to me for 4 days which felt like the longest days of my life. I almost cannot believe how fast this week seems to have gone by. Going through chemo for hopefully the last time was so hard to do...I sometimes thought that I wasn't strong enough to get through it all. It really sucks feeling like crap all day! You really do have to live by each moment and not think of the next day because tomorrow seemed so far away. I'm glad the chemo is done but I still have so much to go through yet.
I have been moved 3 times since last tuesday. I was on the 11th floor with adults from tuesday to sunday. I loved my nurse Kelly who was super sweet and only a year older than me :) They moved me to the 10th floor on sunday when a room opened up for me. Once settled in there for a day (and fully unpacked) they informed me I had to move again to a different (but bigger) room that is going to be fully sanitized for my transplant day. I still don't know what time I am going to receive my brother's stem cells but it will be today for sure. So as of right now September 20th will be my new birthday (don't worry I'm still keeping April 24th as my original bday...that way I get two brays a year :D).
My counts haven't dropped yet from the chemo but I am now on a continuous drip of Tacrolimus which is a immunosuppresant. I will be on this drug for the entirety of my transplant process in the hospital and for the 70-80 days after I get out of the hospital (through pills). I have also begun the many pills of antibiotics and other antifungal medicines I'll be taking for the full 100 days as well. The Tacrolimus made me feel a little fatigued but I feel okay right now. I think the way I'll be feeling throughout this process will be fatigued and slightly queezy. This makes it a little harder to eat and keep food down. I still have a bad after taste in my mouth after I eat anything...I hope that goes away soon. I was also told that I will most likely get mouth sores (again) so I need to make sure I am rinsing my mouth every HOUR because I'm so afraid of getting them again. :(
I went to BINGO last night which was hosted by 3 volunteers and involved the kids, young adults and their families. Mom won more times than I did :P. We now have three more games to play-- Uno, Yahtzee and scrabble :) So if anyone wants to come over and play please stop by! :)
My dad is back in town and I will see him today when he shows up :) He will be here until mid October! I'm very excited about that.
So one week gone and I'm just at day ZERO! Still have a journey to get through but I hope I can get through it without too much trouble. I brought my Wii fit balance board to keep me exercising and I can't wait to see my physical therapist here :) I also started the process of sending my transcripts over to the University of Houston and talking with a counselor who will help me get accepted there as well. I hope most of my credits go through!
Well I am going to take advantage of feeling well and get some exercise in this morning. I will update soon! If I haven't updated in a while that probably means I am not feeling very well. Just wish me luck and keep sending those prayers my way! I will definitely need them :)
I love you all and miss you!
-Savannah
So TODAY is my big day...it is the day I get my new stem cells (courtesy of Travis) and start my new life post-cancer.
It has already been a week since I've been admitted into MD Anderson's hospital. I went in last Tuesday and started chemotherapy at 4:00 am the next day. I had three different drugs that were given to me at different times. The first was given to me for an hour (it begins with a F but I can never remember the name). After that I received Clorafarabine (i think?) for another hour and then finished off with 3 hours of Bulsofan; this is the drug that will most likely be the reason why I may be infertile now. I immediately felt the effects of the chemo that early morning. I was sick all morning unti 2:00 pm when I finially started to feel myself again. I'm just happy that I didn't have a continuous dose of chemo this time around. I had these three drugs given to me for 4 days which felt like the longest days of my life. I almost cannot believe how fast this week seems to have gone by. Going through chemo for hopefully the last time was so hard to do...I sometimes thought that I wasn't strong enough to get through it all. It really sucks feeling like crap all day! You really do have to live by each moment and not think of the next day because tomorrow seemed so far away. I'm glad the chemo is done but I still have so much to go through yet.
I have been moved 3 times since last tuesday. I was on the 11th floor with adults from tuesday to sunday. I loved my nurse Kelly who was super sweet and only a year older than me :) They moved me to the 10th floor on sunday when a room opened up for me. Once settled in there for a day (and fully unpacked) they informed me I had to move again to a different (but bigger) room that is going to be fully sanitized for my transplant day. I still don't know what time I am going to receive my brother's stem cells but it will be today for sure. So as of right now September 20th will be my new birthday (don't worry I'm still keeping April 24th as my original bday...that way I get two brays a year :D).
My counts haven't dropped yet from the chemo but I am now on a continuous drip of Tacrolimus which is a immunosuppresant. I will be on this drug for the entirety of my transplant process in the hospital and for the 70-80 days after I get out of the hospital (through pills). I have also begun the many pills of antibiotics and other antifungal medicines I'll be taking for the full 100 days as well. The Tacrolimus made me feel a little fatigued but I feel okay right now. I think the way I'll be feeling throughout this process will be fatigued and slightly queezy. This makes it a little harder to eat and keep food down. I still have a bad after taste in my mouth after I eat anything...I hope that goes away soon. I was also told that I will most likely get mouth sores (again) so I need to make sure I am rinsing my mouth every HOUR because I'm so afraid of getting them again. :(
I went to BINGO last night which was hosted by 3 volunteers and involved the kids, young adults and their families. Mom won more times than I did :P. We now have three more games to play-- Uno, Yahtzee and scrabble :) So if anyone wants to come over and play please stop by! :)
My dad is back in town and I will see him today when he shows up :) He will be here until mid October! I'm very excited about that.
So one week gone and I'm just at day ZERO! Still have a journey to get through but I hope I can get through it without too much trouble. I brought my Wii fit balance board to keep me exercising and I can't wait to see my physical therapist here :) I also started the process of sending my transcripts over to the University of Houston and talking with a counselor who will help me get accepted there as well. I hope most of my credits go through!
Well I am going to take advantage of feeling well and get some exercise in this morning. I will update soon! If I haven't updated in a while that probably means I am not feeling very well. Just wish me luck and keep sending those prayers my way! I will definitely need them :)
I love you all and miss you!
-Savannah
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Hospital mailing info
I forgot to mention my mailing address while I am in the hospital. That way anyone can send cards and whatnotn to me directly :)
Savannah rollins
Room #1056
PO box 300206
Houston, tx 77230
Love you!!
Sav
Savannah rollins
Room #1056
PO box 300206
Houston, tx 77230
Love you!!
Sav
-7 days
Hello!
After a rough morning I am finally able to write in my blog today.
Of the seven eggs that were mature enough to fertilize only three of the seven fertilized and made it to the embryonic phase. They are now frozen until I am ready to have children :) yay! I am so happy and thankful that I had this opportunity to do this. Thank you dr. Allon!
The next day was just as busy because I has to get my subclavian catheter inserted and my PICC line removed from my arm. I opted to o under because it is a scary procedure to be awake for. I was out in a matter of seconds and when I woke up I asked the nurse if they had done the procedure yet. I honestly felt as if no time had passed at all. The nurse just laughed and said it was all done (I quickly looked and saw that there was indeed a CVC in my chest). My mom was there with me that day and we had to go wait to see my Leukemia doctor for the last time (he said he hopes to never see me again :P). From now on I am in the hands of my stem cell transplant team and doctor.
On Saturday I noticed my right arm was feeling funny and looking a little purplely. I decided to wait until Monday to see what it could be. After my bone marrow biopsy (that was done under sedation and will forever be done this way because it hurts a lot LESS than without it) I went to get an ultrasound done to see what!s going on. I found out that I have a clot in my arm (the same arm that I had a PICC line in) and we will wait until tomorrow to hear what Dr. Ciurea wants to do about it. After waiting forever and a half to see him he tells me that they my give anticoagulants for it; however, due to the chemo, my platelets are going to drop anyways and it will hopefully go away. He also told me that I will be admitted that night (Tuesday the 13th) around 5 or 6 pm. We finally left the hospital around 3 pm (after being there since 6:30 am UGH) and ate some food before heading back to finish up packing. I moved into unit 73 on floor 11 for the time being until they have room on the 10th floor which is the pediatric floor (with the WII and PS3 in it :D). I was definitely getting scared when I heard that they will be giving me my first dose of chemo starting at 4:00 am Wednesday 9/14/11. I have three chemo drugs; Fludarabine (1 hour), clofarabine (1 hour) and bosulfan (3 hours). I got done around 9:00 am and was sick as a dog. Not getting much sleep helped with my uneasiness but the clofarabine definitely messed with my stomach. I was able to sleep until the afternoon and finally started yo feel better once all the chemo had been stopped for a while. I ate some soup and chips for my breakfast/lunch (what is nice is that I have large menu of foods I can choose to have made when I call my order in).
I have an IV in my left arm right in the elbow crease to help with a study they are doing on busolfan. They have been taking out a lot of blood at different times to see how my body absorbs it. This is the drug that will most likely cause infertility. This IV makes my let arm useless and hurts when I moveit. Luckily it will be removed tonight at 11pm.
My therapist visited me (following visits by jan and Janet :) ) and then brought me down where I could meet other patients my age who are undergoing treatment. I met a girl who has been battling brain tumors for 7 years now. She told me they have done all that they can for her since the tumors are in such dangerous spots like brain stem, pituitary gland and optic nerve. I think that means it's terminal...and she is only 21 years old. She is a nice girl and I wish her the best.
I ate a good dinner and watched movies with my mom. I think Cassidy is staying the night tonight since he has tomorrow off. I hope tomorrow goes better than today and I hope to not be a nauseous. I will update again soon.
By the way; -7 days means I have 7 days before I receive my new stem cells which is day 0. From there they will start counting to reach 100 days. It's hard to think that I'm not even on day 1 yet! Soon it will be over for good!
Thanks for reading!
Savannah
After a rough morning I am finally able to write in my blog today.
Of the seven eggs that were mature enough to fertilize only three of the seven fertilized and made it to the embryonic phase. They are now frozen until I am ready to have children :) yay! I am so happy and thankful that I had this opportunity to do this. Thank you dr. Allon!
The next day was just as busy because I has to get my subclavian catheter inserted and my PICC line removed from my arm. I opted to o under because it is a scary procedure to be awake for. I was out in a matter of seconds and when I woke up I asked the nurse if they had done the procedure yet. I honestly felt as if no time had passed at all. The nurse just laughed and said it was all done (I quickly looked and saw that there was indeed a CVC in my chest). My mom was there with me that day and we had to go wait to see my Leukemia doctor for the last time (he said he hopes to never see me again :P). From now on I am in the hands of my stem cell transplant team and doctor.
On Saturday I noticed my right arm was feeling funny and looking a little purplely. I decided to wait until Monday to see what it could be. After my bone marrow biopsy (that was done under sedation and will forever be done this way because it hurts a lot LESS than without it) I went to get an ultrasound done to see what!s going on. I found out that I have a clot in my arm (the same arm that I had a PICC line in) and we will wait until tomorrow to hear what Dr. Ciurea wants to do about it. After waiting forever and a half to see him he tells me that they my give anticoagulants for it; however, due to the chemo, my platelets are going to drop anyways and it will hopefully go away. He also told me that I will be admitted that night (Tuesday the 13th) around 5 or 6 pm. We finally left the hospital around 3 pm (after being there since 6:30 am UGH) and ate some food before heading back to finish up packing. I moved into unit 73 on floor 11 for the time being until they have room on the 10th floor which is the pediatric floor (with the WII and PS3 in it :D). I was definitely getting scared when I heard that they will be giving me my first dose of chemo starting at 4:00 am Wednesday 9/14/11. I have three chemo drugs; Fludarabine (1 hour), clofarabine (1 hour) and bosulfan (3 hours). I got done around 9:00 am and was sick as a dog. Not getting much sleep helped with my uneasiness but the clofarabine definitely messed with my stomach. I was able to sleep until the afternoon and finally started yo feel better once all the chemo had been stopped for a while. I ate some soup and chips for my breakfast/lunch (what is nice is that I have large menu of foods I can choose to have made when I call my order in).
I have an IV in my left arm right in the elbow crease to help with a study they are doing on busolfan. They have been taking out a lot of blood at different times to see how my body absorbs it. This is the drug that will most likely cause infertility. This IV makes my let arm useless and hurts when I moveit. Luckily it will be removed tonight at 11pm.
My therapist visited me (following visits by jan and Janet :) ) and then brought me down where I could meet other patients my age who are undergoing treatment. I met a girl who has been battling brain tumors for 7 years now. She told me they have done all that they can for her since the tumors are in such dangerous spots like brain stem, pituitary gland and optic nerve. I think that means it's terminal...and she is only 21 years old. She is a nice girl and I wish her the best.
I ate a good dinner and watched movies with my mom. I think Cassidy is staying the night tonight since he has tomorrow off. I hope tomorrow goes better than today and I hope to not be a nauseous. I will update again soon.
By the way; -7 days means I have 7 days before I receive my new stem cells which is day 0. From there they will start counting to reach 100 days. It's hard to think that I'm not even on day 1 yet! Soon it will be over for good!
Thanks for reading!
Savannah
Thursday, September 8, 2011
So I am very sad to say that Travis and Big Tam left today :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( It was so fun having them here and it sucks to see them go.
As Trav mentioned in his post, he got a first hand experience of my crazy life going back and forth to MD Anderson. Tam joined us on Thursday the 1st and she got to administer shots for both me and Trav. Friday I had appointments to get my heart checked (EKG), X-rays (chest) and CT scan (sinuses). After my appointments we headed down to Kemah to meet up with my dad and have dinner on the boardwalk. We cruised around and went on the ferris wheel :) It was a very nice night :) My dad got us a hotel room so me, case, tam and trav stayed in clear lake that night. The next day we all packed into dad's car and went to the space station museum. We got a tour of the control station and the Saturn 5 rocket. It was HUGE! We also saw moon rocks :)
Last weekend was labor day weekend so we had a little party on sunday at Jan and Janet's house with the fam, Tiffany and Josh and my neighbors Melissa and Daniel. My dad made gumbo while my brother FINALLY played his ukulele. Mind you it was the ONLY time he played :( unfortunately the night didn't end up too well for me and tam; I'm not sure what made us sick but we were both throwing up by the end of the night and I went to the ER at MDA to see if they could help me. Me and Cass were there until 4:30 am (with him having work that day at 10:00am) because they were so slow at everything they did. My blood work was normal which told us nothing as to why I got so sick. Monday was spent recovering from our poor tummies.
I have been going every other day to the fertility clinic for blood and ultrasounds to check my follicles and see how fast they are growing. My left ovary had 3 large follicles while my right had around 6. Towards the end of my cycle with injections, I had around 15 follicles in my ovaries. Today I had them retrieved and the doctor took out 13 eggs. Of the 13 eggs only 7 were mature enough to fertilize. I opted to have all of them fertilized (instead of the original plan of 50/50) because they told me the eggs were not in the best condition (thanks to 2 previous rounds of chemo I suspect). The clinic will call me tomorrow to tell me how many eggs fertilized and if the embryos are developing properly. The procedure was very short and I don't remember a thing. I was given an IV and a sedative that put me out so fast I don't remember falling asleep at all. Next thing I know I woke up on the bed and my uterus felt like someone poked 2 holes in it (which they did). After receiving a pain killer and attempting to eat a bagel me and mom headed home while Cass went to work. On the way home, however, I threw up into a mailing envelope and I have been nauseous since. It's like pre-chemo nauseousness. awesome. And to make it worse, Cassidy came home early because he's feeling sick :( :( I hope we feel better soon.
Tomorrow I will do the same again by waking up bright and early (before the sun is up) and get my blood drawn and then have my sub-clavian catheter put in. That will require sedation and I'm hoping that I don't get as sick afterwards like today. Monday I will be going under sedation (AGAIN) for my bone marrow biopsy (#4). Due to my egg harvesting pushing later into the week than was expected my move-in date to the hospital was pushed back a day to the 13th (tuesday). If all goes well I should be starting chemotherapy on the 14th. oh joy.
Anyways..I'm feeling sick so i will update again soon.
love you all!
-sav
As Trav mentioned in his post, he got a first hand experience of my crazy life going back and forth to MD Anderson. Tam joined us on Thursday the 1st and she got to administer shots for both me and Trav. Friday I had appointments to get my heart checked (EKG), X-rays (chest) and CT scan (sinuses). After my appointments we headed down to Kemah to meet up with my dad and have dinner on the boardwalk. We cruised around and went on the ferris wheel :) It was a very nice night :) My dad got us a hotel room so me, case, tam and trav stayed in clear lake that night. The next day we all packed into dad's car and went to the space station museum. We got a tour of the control station and the Saturn 5 rocket. It was HUGE! We also saw moon rocks :)
Last weekend was labor day weekend so we had a little party on sunday at Jan and Janet's house with the fam, Tiffany and Josh and my neighbors Melissa and Daniel. My dad made gumbo while my brother FINALLY played his ukulele. Mind you it was the ONLY time he played :( unfortunately the night didn't end up too well for me and tam; I'm not sure what made us sick but we were both throwing up by the end of the night and I went to the ER at MDA to see if they could help me. Me and Cass were there until 4:30 am (with him having work that day at 10:00am) because they were so slow at everything they did. My blood work was normal which told us nothing as to why I got so sick. Monday was spent recovering from our poor tummies.
I have been going every other day to the fertility clinic for blood and ultrasounds to check my follicles and see how fast they are growing. My left ovary had 3 large follicles while my right had around 6. Towards the end of my cycle with injections, I had around 15 follicles in my ovaries. Today I had them retrieved and the doctor took out 13 eggs. Of the 13 eggs only 7 were mature enough to fertilize. I opted to have all of them fertilized (instead of the original plan of 50/50) because they told me the eggs were not in the best condition (thanks to 2 previous rounds of chemo I suspect). The clinic will call me tomorrow to tell me how many eggs fertilized and if the embryos are developing properly. The procedure was very short and I don't remember a thing. I was given an IV and a sedative that put me out so fast I don't remember falling asleep at all. Next thing I know I woke up on the bed and my uterus felt like someone poked 2 holes in it (which they did). After receiving a pain killer and attempting to eat a bagel me and mom headed home while Cass went to work. On the way home, however, I threw up into a mailing envelope and I have been nauseous since. It's like pre-chemo nauseousness. awesome. And to make it worse, Cassidy came home early because he's feeling sick :( :( I hope we feel better soon.
Tomorrow I will do the same again by waking up bright and early (before the sun is up) and get my blood drawn and then have my sub-clavian catheter put in. That will require sedation and I'm hoping that I don't get as sick afterwards like today. Monday I will be going under sedation (AGAIN) for my bone marrow biopsy (#4). Due to my egg harvesting pushing later into the week than was expected my move-in date to the hospital was pushed back a day to the 13th (tuesday). If all goes well I should be starting chemotherapy on the 14th. oh joy.
Anyways..I'm feeling sick so i will update again soon.
love you all!
-sav
White Cell Power!
Hey everyone,
So I wanted to give an update regarding the stem cell donation process for savvy. I arrived in Houston august 30th and immediately jumped into the whirlwind known as Savannah's schedule. Let me tell you they are busier then anyone else I know!
Beginning the first of September I went into MD Anderson and drew 14 vials of blood, got a chest X-rays and an EKG. Everything looks good health wise for me. My resting heart rate was 44 which was funny, because its lower then my dads (he flaunts that he works out 1000x more then me).
Once all my lab results came back I met with the stem cell and leukemia doctors and was prescribed a drug called Neupogen which causes my body to rapidly generate and release white blood cells and stem cells into my blood. The medications was 2 shots a day. Big tam was the nurse in charge of my shots and I think she had too much fun with it. The look in her eyes with those needles was a little disconcerting.....
FYI the shot was subcutaneous and I took it in the arms, stomach and legs. In terms of least amount of pain I rate them as
1) leg
2) stomach
3) arm
The medication had some side effects for me. Mostly bone pain. It seems when all the cells are trying to get out of my bone they cause some stress which is felt as an achy feeling. It was generally located in my lower back and my joints.
Four days after I started my treatments I went into the apheresis center and began the extracting process. Basically the shove a huge needle into a vain on one arm and a iv Into my other arm. The machine sucks the blood out, separates the plasma, white blood cells, and red blood cells then puts the white blood cells in a bag for further processing. The stem cells are all mixed in with the WBCs so they have to goto another lab to be separated and counted.
The process for me takes about 3.5 hours and is generally painless, although I was ready to get out of the bed by the time it was done.
Their goal for number if stem cells collected is 4 million per kilogram. Hopefully my procedure yielded more then that!
1) leg
2) stomach
3) arm
Thursday, September 1, 2011
12 more days
Happy September everyone! Can you believe it has been almost 3 months since I've been diagnosed? I feel like it has been both short and long at the same time. So much has happened and yet there is still so much to happen.
I went to my two classes I had to take before getting admitted. One was just an intro class to what a stem cell transplant is and the other class was a review of what to expect when I go in to the hospital for my transplant. I already knew a lot of what we went over but it was good to be able to ask the nurse any questions we had about the transplant and hospital stay.
Travis had his first appointment at MDA yesterday. He got registered, met with the apheresis nurse (where they will be taking out his stem cells) and then he got 14 vials of blood taken out, chest X-rays and an EKG done. He was proud to say that he had a resting heart rate of 44 beat/min; he and my dad have a little competition going on now about who has the lowest heart rate. I guess we can say my brother doesn't really stress about anything :P His schedule for the next week will be:
Today (Thursday): appointments starting from 9:00 am and ending around 3:00 pm.
Friday: appointments with my stem cell doctor and receive the medication that will make his bones generate more stem cells. Side effects: his bones are going to hurt :(
Saturday-Tuesday: take medication
Tuesday: retrieve stem cells. This will require him to be in the apheresis center for about 3-4 hours. He will not be allowed to leave the bed so we will have to entertain him while he is there.
Wednesday-Thursday: MDA will make sure they have enough stem cells before letting Travis go back home to Florida. They will freeze the stem cells until I need them.
Big Tam comes in tonight and then tomorrow night we are going to Clear Lake and Kemah to stay the night with my dad at his hotel. I think we are going to have a party of a sort at Jan and Janet's house Sunday or Monday for Labor Day.
What to expect with me when I go into the hospital on September 12th:
- Check-in/move-in around 5:00pm. It usually takes a while for the room to be ready for me so I will expect to move-in late Monday evening. It is my dad's birthday so I hope we will do something before I check-in. He leaves I think the following day to go back to Hawaii. He will be back later this month I believe or early October.
- Tuesday the 13th I will start my high dose chemotherapy. I will recieve chemotherapy for around 7 days. I will get a day of rest before my stem cell transplant
- Day ZERO; I receive my stem cells via infusion through my catheter. It will take a couple of hours and will have an overpowering smell of sweet corn. yuck. Travis said I will have to eat corn everyday for the rest of my life to think of him and..his stem cells....I will most likely never want to eat corn after smelling it for 3 hours. >.<
- I will recover for about 30 days in the hospital. I will be poked 3 times a week to make sure my immune system to low (they give me a continuous medication that will supress my immune system the entire time I'm there), bothered every 4 hours to check my vitals, and the doctors will be checking to see my brother's cell take over my cells (that is called engraftment, which is what we want :) ) They will check for rashes, jaundice or other symptoms which come with the graft vs. host disease. Since I will be on the pediatric ward I will have more entertainment options than the adults...they don't even have a dvd player in their room (it has a VCR :P) I will be shoved out of bed multiple times a day to walk and go to physical therapy. I will start my salt and soda mouth wash when I begin chemotherapy and gargle every 2 hours. Honestly I won't have much of a chance to get bored because someone will either be waking me up, poking me, shoving me out of bed, making me gargle or eat or drink or shower. I found out that it is imperative to shower because the chemotherapy is excreted out through my pores and it is good to get that off my body or I might get a rash. Cassidy was worried that he will get leukemia now because he was sleeping in my bed with me the first time I got chemotherapy. I reassured him that he would have to be exposed a lot more than that to get cancer.
My eyelashes are very short now...they used to be nice and long but as they fell out they didn't grow back the same. Now I barely have eye lashes :( My hair is coming back..but it looks weird. I will most likely lose it again from my high dose chemotherapy.
I wanted to thank my friend Kaileen for the lovely package I got; she gave me two beautiful scarves (extra soft and colorful) and earrings that I get compliments on every time I wear them :) Thank you!
I will update again as my brother continues his appointments and let you know of any updates :)
-savy
I went to my two classes I had to take before getting admitted. One was just an intro class to what a stem cell transplant is and the other class was a review of what to expect when I go in to the hospital for my transplant. I already knew a lot of what we went over but it was good to be able to ask the nurse any questions we had about the transplant and hospital stay.
Travis had his first appointment at MDA yesterday. He got registered, met with the apheresis nurse (where they will be taking out his stem cells) and then he got 14 vials of blood taken out, chest X-rays and an EKG done. He was proud to say that he had a resting heart rate of 44 beat/min; he and my dad have a little competition going on now about who has the lowest heart rate. I guess we can say my brother doesn't really stress about anything :P His schedule for the next week will be:
Today (Thursday): appointments starting from 9:00 am and ending around 3:00 pm.
Friday: appointments with my stem cell doctor and receive the medication that will make his bones generate more stem cells. Side effects: his bones are going to hurt :(
Saturday-Tuesday: take medication
Tuesday: retrieve stem cells. This will require him to be in the apheresis center for about 3-4 hours. He will not be allowed to leave the bed so we will have to entertain him while he is there.
Wednesday-Thursday: MDA will make sure they have enough stem cells before letting Travis go back home to Florida. They will freeze the stem cells until I need them.
Big Tam comes in tonight and then tomorrow night we are going to Clear Lake and Kemah to stay the night with my dad at his hotel. I think we are going to have a party of a sort at Jan and Janet's house Sunday or Monday for Labor Day.
What to expect with me when I go into the hospital on September 12th:
- Check-in/move-in around 5:00pm. It usually takes a while for the room to be ready for me so I will expect to move-in late Monday evening. It is my dad's birthday so I hope we will do something before I check-in. He leaves I think the following day to go back to Hawaii. He will be back later this month I believe or early October.
- Tuesday the 13th I will start my high dose chemotherapy. I will recieve chemotherapy for around 7 days. I will get a day of rest before my stem cell transplant
- Day ZERO; I receive my stem cells via infusion through my catheter. It will take a couple of hours and will have an overpowering smell of sweet corn. yuck. Travis said I will have to eat corn everyday for the rest of my life to think of him and..his stem cells....I will most likely never want to eat corn after smelling it for 3 hours. >.<
- I will recover for about 30 days in the hospital. I will be poked 3 times a week to make sure my immune system to low (they give me a continuous medication that will supress my immune system the entire time I'm there), bothered every 4 hours to check my vitals, and the doctors will be checking to see my brother's cell take over my cells (that is called engraftment, which is what we want :) ) They will check for rashes, jaundice or other symptoms which come with the graft vs. host disease. Since I will be on the pediatric ward I will have more entertainment options than the adults...they don't even have a dvd player in their room (it has a VCR :P) I will be shoved out of bed multiple times a day to walk and go to physical therapy. I will start my salt and soda mouth wash when I begin chemotherapy and gargle every 2 hours. Honestly I won't have much of a chance to get bored because someone will either be waking me up, poking me, shoving me out of bed, making me gargle or eat or drink or shower. I found out that it is imperative to shower because the chemotherapy is excreted out through my pores and it is good to get that off my body or I might get a rash. Cassidy was worried that he will get leukemia now because he was sleeping in my bed with me the first time I got chemotherapy. I reassured him that he would have to be exposed a lot more than that to get cancer.
My eyelashes are very short now...they used to be nice and long but as they fell out they didn't grow back the same. Now I barely have eye lashes :( My hair is coming back..but it looks weird. I will most likely lose it again from my high dose chemotherapy.
I wanted to thank my friend Kaileen for the lovely package I got; she gave me two beautiful scarves (extra soft and colorful) and earrings that I get compliments on every time I wear them :) Thank you!
I will update again as my brother continues his appointments and let you know of any updates :)
-savy
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