Early Signs of Irritation

Day 68

Good morning everybody. Ann and I are currently sitting in the luxurious comfort of the MD Anderson Leukemia Clinic lobby. Ann has just finished her blood draws for the day and the samples were whisked by pneumatic tube to the lab, where it is being analyzed. When the results come back we will get to see Dr. Thomas to get the official word on where things stand with the chemo treatment.

It's funny sitting here and seeing all the new people who have come into the clinic for the 1st time as new patients. Some are trying to occupy themselves with small talk and reading or watching TV but they all look scared to one extent or another. Only 68 days ago Ann and I were in the same boat as all of these new people and I feel for them. In many ways the first few steps on this journey where some of the hardest.

Ann is having some difficulty today. She is having a good deal of trouble climbing stairs. This morning when we went to get on the bus to come here, Ann had to use both hands to pull herself up onto the bus steps. She says that it was awful, and she is concerned that she is having trouble with such a simple act.

Of more troubling immediate concern to me is her eyes. She says that the dry irritated feeling that happened after the Cytarabine in round 2 is starting to happen again. Her eyes are beginning to turn red and I have noticed some swelling of the eye lids. I hope that the new steroid eye drops will halt this but it's starting to look like they won't. Ann is irrigating her eyes with natural tears every 2 hours now, but things still seem to be sliding towards the "worse" end of the scale.

Update

After meeting with Dr. Thomas today it turns out that Ann's blood work shows exactly what she expected after round 4. Low counts all around. The only surprise was that her potassium was low for the first time. So in addition to a lumbar puncture today Ann needed to get a "baby bottle" from the transfusion unit.

This device is really a pretty neat little piece of work. It's designed so that the patient can be infused through there IV with out having to have a pole for a gravity feed or a pump. The fluid is held in a elastic balloon, which is connected to a plastic tube and a small valve. When the valve is opened the pressure exerted by the balloon, squeezes the fluid through the tube and into the patient. It takes about 5 hours but it kept Ann from spending that time waiting in the transfusion unit.

We tried to get a follow up at the opthalmology clinic to have her eyes checked. Unfortunately the Doctor that we needed to see had finished her clinic by the time we managed to get in. So it looks like we will have to make a separate trip to MDA tomorrow or the next day. I have decided to step up the irrigation of Ann's eyes with natural tears to every two hours, instead of four, until we have a chance to have her checked out again. It's not a perfect solution but it's best I can do right now.

Update

One more update for tonight. I forgot to add that the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) has asked Ann to become a national focus patient. Thats a person that they structure marrow and stem cell donor drives around for minority communities. This is great news and we have gotten our first contact from the media seeking to publicize Ann's story!