-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