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....
3 comments:
I'll bet you every resident,physician,nurse, and candy striper (do they still have candy stripers?) loves working with Jeff. That giggle, the smile, and those dimples are just a few items that make Jeff the loveable guy he is.
The baby...feisty?...i dont believe it. where in the world would the baby get that from!! the doctors and all the medical ppl are being spoiled with jeff as a patient. jeff is getting fixed and we can be thankful for that. i love all three of you.
Jamie,
I don't know if you know me, my name is Diane Assalone. Nathan (or better known as Porchy) is my son. He has been through everything your husband is going through. I know your Aunt Paula. She has told me about Jeff and the most important advise I can give you in a short note is to trust pray and keep Jeff's hand clean. It is a amazing how well Nathan did that but germs right now, well Jeff's body is weak, is the biggest enemy to him. I clorox wiped everything he had to touch. He never once ended up back in the hospital during his chemo recovery times.
I hope that his team of dr. are educating him on that. Any time you want to talk or have a question I will be here for you. My # is 885-6376.
If you would like to talk to Nathan tell him I gave you his # it is 594-0418.
I will be praying for all 3 of you. Love, Diane
Post a Comment