OB Appointment and Other Stuff

I made another trip home this weekend to go to my doctor's appointment and get some work done at the plant. I am 32 weeks + 5 days into the pregnancy, and according to today's ultrasound estimates, Baby Einstein (okay - I'm giving in and calling the baby "Einstein" for Paula's sake) weighs in at around 5 lbs. He/She has settled into the preferred birthing position and has a heartbeat of 140 beats per minute. Today was probably my last appointment in Saint Marys, because I'll most likely be delivering in Hershey. Jeff's sister has set me up with her OB...so at least he'll be familiar to her and I'll have seen him once or twice before the baby is born (hopefully). Anyway, with about 7 weeks to go, I'm still feeling very well (physically).

My family and friends held a baby shower on Einstein's behalf on Saturday. We got an amazing array of baby-related necessities for which we are very grateful. I also came home to a newly painted nursery, thanks to Paula, Danielle, Brenda, Chris, Rhonda, and Jen.

I also want to thank everyone again for the support you're giving Jeff through your cards and gifts. Everything is very much appreciated and we couldn't get through this ordeal without all of the help.

Jeff's blood counts are now on the way back up. The final results of the spinal tap came back a-okay, and he had enough energy today to do some laps around the house. Hopefully, we'll continue to see improvement every day, so that he is feeling fairly strong at transplant time.

Discharged (Again)

Jeff was discharged today around noon. His temperature is now better controlled than last week. He's still feeling pretty weak, but we are told this should begin to improve soon.

Happy Thanksgiving.

More News

The stress that Jeff and I endured on Monday makes this post pretty difficult for me to write, but we did get some good news, too...so I feel the need to share the information.

While we sat at Day Hospital waiting to be re-admitted for another fever, Jeff suddenly started to see a spot in the middle of his right eye. Upon telling the doctor on call what was happening, we got rushed to CT scan so they could take a look at his head. We were told that it could be a number of things, many of them quite serious. Waiting for the results of the scan was almost as bad as the days leading up to Jeff's initial surgery. Luckily, the scan showed no problems, so the docs called upon the ophthalmologists to take a look at his eyes. It turns out that because of Jeff's low platelet count, he has small bleeds in both of them. One of them happens to be in the center of his right eye, causing the spot that he is still seeing today. We have been told that this should clear up on its own, but it will take several weeks. If it does not clear up on its own, there is absolutely nothing medical science can do for it.

On Tuesday, Jeff had his spine tapped so that his fluid could be tested to determine whether or not leukemia is present there. Preliminary results show that his fluid looks completely normal, so I've decided to stop worrying about that.

The other major news from Tuesday came from the Transplant Coordinator. It turns out that Jeff's brother, Mark, is a very good match. Plans are to proceed with transplant in mid-December.

More later....

Discharged

Jeff was discharged from the hospital this evening. He's on a new antibiotic that should help take care of the residual infection that is still causing a low-grade fever. He's still feeling run-down, but much better than he has in quite a while.

The bone marrow biopsy came back clean, which means that the second round of chemo did its job. They've started him on growth factor to get his white count back up, and the rest of his blood counts should also start to recover. If his blood recovers without a measurable amount of leukemic cells, they'll call it a remission. However AML remissions are generally short-lived at this point in the treatment. So, if one of Jeff's siblings is a match, they'll proceed with a bone marrow transplant as soon as possible. If there is no sibling-match, we'll go to the bone marrow registry to search for an unrelated donor, and Jeff will have consolidation chemotherapy in the mean time to keep the leukemia at bay.

The baby must know that his/her Daddy just got past the first step of treatment, because he/she has been kicking up a storm today. Baby Eckert should be making an appearance in about 8 weeks.

Par for the Course

Just like the doctor predicted, Jeff ended up back in the hospital because of a fever. He was admitted Monday night, and because he was still running a temp this afternoon, he'll be there through tomorrow (at a minimum). They've been pumping him with various antibiotics through his central line, and culturing his blood to see which one he needs next. His counts were finally low enough yesterday to necessitate a blood transfusion, which apparently does wonders for him, and he woke up feeling pretty well today (although still mildly feverish). I think Jeff enjoys receiving blood almost as much as he likes drinking beer.

Today was day +13 of his second round of chemo, so the docs came around to tap into his hip bone for more marrow. We'll know tomorrow or Friday what the next step will be.

Nothing New

There's nothing really new to report here. We had a couple of rough days, because Jeff is pretty wiped out. Luckily, the residual nausea seems to have settled down, and he's a bit more comfortable than he has been.

We still spend every other day at the hospital, so Jeff's blood can be tested to determine whether or not he needs to be transfused. The extra blood does seem to help his energy level, but they don't transfuse until the counts are pretty low.

All this time in the hospital gives me lots of time to read and last week, I finished a book called, The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. It's her first novel, and I enjoyed it immensely. I'll look forward to reading her future work. On the other hand, I also read, Cesar's Way by Cesar Millan. He's the star of the tv show, Dog Whisperer. Anyway, I thought the book was a big waste of time. I'm not sure why it's a New York Times Bestseller.

Speaking of dogs, Dad actually admitted that Hallie hunted better than Brady on Friday. I'm not sure if that means we now have the best bird dog in the world, or if he just meant Hallie was better for a few hours. We'll have to ask him to clarify.

Exhausted

I just recently finished a book called, "The Happiness Hypothesis," written by a psychology professor at the University of Virginia named, Johnathan Haidt. One of its basic premises, is that people are generally a certain level of "happy," and there are only a few things that can increase your personal level of happiness - each which take a lot of effort to be effective. Of course, regardless of your happy-level, there are always periods of highs and lows. Obviously, we're in one of those low lulls that isn't going to get better for quite a while. Luckily, I am certain (as Haidt also points out in his book) that we will once again return to the happy people we once were. And, I have to admit, that compared to the general population, Jeff and I are both very happy people.

I have to remind myself of this after days like today. We were at the hospital for about 8 hours, and when we got home we were exhausted. It's particularly difficult to be upbeat all the time, but it's most impossible when you're tired. It's nights like this when I have trouble imagining how on earth I'm going to have a baby in the middle of this mess. But, like Jeff just told me, I don't have a choice, the baby is going to come regardless of what is happening here.

Other than being exhausted, Jeff is feeling okay today. We are done with Round 2 of chemo, and we'll have a day off from the hospital tomorrow. Mark, Chad and Jill have all had blood drawn that will be sent away for HLA-typing. Hopefully, one of them will be a good match and we'll be able to start the process of getting ready for the transplant. If none of them match, the transplant coordinator will start the search for an unrelated donor. Before all of you volunteer to get tested, please understand that it is highly unlikely that anyone Jeff knows (other than his siblings) would be a match. In fact, you generally need a pool of about 3 million people to find a match for any one person. Luckily, the registry is quite large, and because Jeff does not have a strangely-mixed ethnic heritage, he has a good chance of finding a match.

One More Day

Jeff started Round 2 of chemotherapy on Friday, and with the treatment being only 5 days this time, we're almost done. The "Day Hospital" was able to accommodate him, so we were lucky that he didn't have to be re-admitted. He seems to be feeling okay, and has thus far avoided the dreaded fever. His hair is starting to fall out, and he continues to show me the little chunks that he can't help but pull out of his head. We'll probably go ahead and shave the rest off tomorrow.

Incidentally, it's come to my attention that I have lots of new readers. I guess when I'm actually writing about something, as opposed to the usual minutiae that fills my pages, people are bound to be interested. Anyway, thanks for caring and feel free to leave me a comment, if only to let me know who you are and how you know Jeff. If you want to e-mail Jeff directly, he can be reached at jeckert@alltel.net.

More Chemo

Jeff's biopsy showed that he needs more chemo right away. They'll be switching the drugs and giving it over 5 days. We're still waiting to hear from the hospital about whether or not he'll need to be admitted. There is a possibility that this can be done at Day Hospital. In any case, things should start tomorrow sometime. The 5 days of chemo, of course, will be followed by 2-3 weeks recovery time. Hopefully, this time the chemo will do its job and empty the marrow of all the cancer. If it does, he'll be given growth factor to stimulate new cell growth. If things go right, the new blood that comes back will be leukemia-free. At that point, we would probably be able to come home for a few weeks, before the next round of treatment starts.

Apparently, there is no quick road to recovery when it comes to AML. The doctor estimates, that if things go okay, Jeff will need to be off work for 9 - 12 months.

Life is still feeling like a nightmare that we aren't waking up from, but I guess we get a little more used to things everyday. The help we're getting from our families, neighbors, friends and co-workers is actually a little overwhelming. I know that we are lucky to be surrounded by such a loving community.

Jeff is an amazing patient. He has kept his sense of humor, and yesterday, we laughed until we cried about how it feels to get tape ripped from a certain body part that I won't mention here. Let me tell you that the look on his face when they took off that tape was priceless. Because Hershey is a teaching hospital, he also has been paraded by countless interns, residents and attending physicians. Yesterday, his bone marrow was taken by a resident performing the procedure for the second time, and as the attending physician told the resident, "This isn't neurosurgery, it's more like woodshop." Basically, they shove (and I mean shove) a sharp needle into your hip bone and extract the marrow...although they numb the area quite well, you still feel the pressure and sometimes a sharp pain where the anesthesia hasn't reached.

The baby still has room to move and is proving to be a little bit feisty. There is nothing like a swift kick to the ribs to put a smile on your face when life is tough....