Friday, January 21, 2005

One one that JAY came Home!!!!

Yep, Jay is hopefully sleeping in his own bed tonight!!!!!! It will not be long lived, because he goes right back to the hospital tomorrow to receive his spinal tap for the start of his experimental chemo, but he agreed when I told him that I am sure one night @ home is much better than 26 days in a hospital! heh. He is doing much better and I will post Sheila's emails below!

Two things I just thought yall might like to know about the first is:

The liberator. These are basically 7-14" power extension cords. Yes, yes, I know, "what in the world is D.G. telling me about these"....well, it is not everyday that you come across something that is cheap and practical and these are both.(the link above gets you five in one pkg.) It basically allows you to plug in power chords into every slot of a power strip instead of those transformers taking up two to three slots and not allowing you to use them. here is a picture of what I am talking about:



The second thing I was very cool that I saw today while surfing the web was this:

Ring of Sauron

Very cool indeed if you ask me, but then again this is not practical or cheap, just very cool, heh. You can even set it to glow the embers and show the Elvish with a motion sensor!!! Heh OK, yes I am a Geek, but a proud geek! :)



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Sheila's Emails:

Jan 19th:

Jay really wants out. He is begging and trying to negotiate with the Doctors to let him out. This is a very good thing.

They are going to do another full body CT Scan tomorrow and do another intrathecal (in the spine) chemo treatment tomorrow. He is begging them to let him out no later than Friday.

Yesterday, surgeons came into lance the area on his arm where one of the PICC lines he had was. It was highly inflamed and they will be coming back today to check on it.
His white count (3,500) is up and his platelet count stabilized at 64,000 (no more transfusions). They are still giving him potassium daily because it remains low. We are going to try and find out the next steps today. Today is day 25 and he said he is going stir crazy. I keep reminding him that he has a week more to catch up with me because he was out for a week. He just grumbles at me. This too is a good sign :-).

Take care everyone,

Sheila
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Jan 20th:

He might get to go home today. We will have to administer IV antibiotics at home but we've done this before. We also have home healthcare.

Before he can leave today he will have to have a spinal tap where they will put chemo in the spine, he needs a blood transfusion, and potassium and magnesium. It will be much later today if they do release him.

Wait, we just received word from his nurse that the spinal tap can't be today because the chemo drug did not arrive at the pharmacy downstairs. The chemo they are using is highly specialized and the pharmacy does not have any on hand because Jay is one of the only people using it. It's long acting chemo that stays in the spinal fluid for 2 weeks.

He may not get to leave until tomorrow now but we will see.

I have started packing up his room. It resembles end of semester moving from college rather than a hospital stay. He definitely gets any comfort from home he can think of to make him feel better.

Right now we have 2 computers, a Swedish foam mattress pad, 4 back massagers, 4 foam pillows, a Swedish foam pillow, a vaporizer since it is so dry in here, about every episode of Star Trek on DVD, D and D figurines, magazines, books, his pocket PC, camera, clothes, about 6 weeks of Ensure supplement drink that they have been sending with every meal and he refuses to drink it, his own soft blanket from home and about 10,000 other things. I believe in making sure he's comfortable and so do his parents and aunt so he has everything he might want that will fit in this room.

I'm glad he might be getting to go home because my airbed sprung a leak the night before last and I wake up literally on the floor. I get up several times to refuel but I'll be getting a new one before our next visit for chemo. :-)

Well, I will keep you up to date as to where he will be and how he is doing.

Take care,

Sheila
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Great stuff, and of course I told you above that now Jay is home so our thoughts and prayers are working, now it is just time to gear up for the experimental chemo! Thank you all for your love and care! and as always, Please KUTPs!!!!!!!!!!!

Have a wonderful weekend and Friday!

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