Monday, June 22, Catching Up

Today is Monday, June 22. You last heard from me May 26, almost a month has elapsed since I last reported on my condition. I am now dropping in to say what condition my condition is in. Currently feeling ok per my use of a song lyric from my youth. Some of my readers are wondering how Apheresis went and what actually happened. 

The day, June 2, started early (for me) and ended late, which is not unusual (for me). I had to report early for a surgical procedure where an inline catheter was placed. One end entered my body near the right collar bone and the other end, a special tube, about the diameter of surgical tubing, but much stiffer with perforations strategically placed, ending near my heart. I experienced no discomfort from the procedure and afterwards. Once I was cleared, I was wheeled off to the Apheresis unit. I was attached to a centrifuge via my inline catheter and blood was withdrawn to have the T cells withdrawn and everything else returned to me. My rudimentary understanding is the catheter and tubing allow for blood to flow in both directions at the same time. I was hooked up to the centrifuge for 5.5 hours. I wasn’t interested in daytime tv. I did not bring a charger for my phone, so I did not have a source of diversion to occupy myself. It was boring except for chatting with my primary care giver. I was given discharge instructions and off I went into the evening. Somewhere during our maneuvers to exit the main OHSU campus, Marquam Hill, I received a call from my OHSU MSW, who was the point person on the Apheresis process. The MSW said all the T cells harvested were acceptable so there would be no need for me to come back tomorrow for a second session in the Apheresis lab. Oh Yay, says I. What this meant to me more immediately is I would not have to spend a night with the catheter in place. It also meant we had to go to the lower campus to have a nurse remove the catheter. We made it and there was no long wait. Turned out the charge nurse new where Mehama was. Grew up further upstream from me and went to school in Gates/Mill City. Dameon and I returned to our overnight abode around 8:30. 

The next morning, I had to be at Sunnyside Hospital for an 11 AM pulmonary test. Part of the pre-tests for the CAR T therapy. And that afternoon back in Salem for my first radiation treatment. I had a preliminary talk with the Radiation Oncologist supervising my brief spate of radiation while waiting for the return of my T cells, June 1. This included my target areas being determined and marked with little tiny tattoo dots by special technicians. I walked into the waiting area and shortly after the radiation techs came and escorted me back to the radiation machine.  What a piece of modern technology, and not by any stretch of the imagination like a normal cat scan machine. This machine unpacks several arms each with a different device on the end. These arms would rotate around me at the direction of the technicians who were monitoring me via computers. In and out of radiation treatment in less than 15 minutes and on my way home a few minutes later. Wow, impressive!! That was Wednesday and Thursday.

Friday I was awakened by a pain in my chest. I dressed myself as always then went and collapsed in my lounge chair and waited to see if the pain would abate, which it didn’t. I called an OHSU triage nurse and went over the symptoms with the nurse, who consulted with my OHSU oncologist. It was determined I needed to go to emergency. Dameon drove me in. Checked myself in and then waited before getting escorted to a room for a vitals check then back out to the waiting room and waited. Eventually they got me into an intermediary room while I waited for a CAT scan of my chest. During this wait I became hungry but was told I could not eat until after the CAT scan and even after the CAT scan I had to wait for a doctor to read and interpret the scan results before I could eat. A Kaiser Hospitalist came to me with the results of the CAT scan. I had blood clots, but not a pulmonary embolism (PE), which was good news for the doctor meaning I dodged a bullet. The solution was an overnight stay for observation and a ton of Lovenox syringes. Lovenox is a blood thinner, but of the new variety which inhibits further growth of current blood clots and stops future development of blood clots (because my blood is thin?). When the Lovenox solution was presented to me there was an implication this could be a lifetime thing(?). I’m not interested in jabbing myself twice a day in my stomach flab for the rest of my life. I’ll do it for now. I was discharged Saturday morning and by Sunday morning was feeling reasonably well. No chest pain, and still aware of a lump on my stomach. 

The following week, June 8 through June 12, was attending my radiation treatments in the afternoon and hanging out at home. The following week was much the same except Friday, June 19, was my last day of radiation. It looked like the next week, today through June 26, was going to be very laid back, but Saturday, June 20, the RN who is my oncology doctor’s primary assistant called to check in and give me an outline of what the future was looking like. Around the end of the month things will start heating up for me and CAR T transplant. The RN said as soon as all the dates were locked in, she would send me copy of the calendar. So, my 4^th of July may be very different for me. I will keep you posted.