Day -2, chemotherapy and the time to start eating as much as possible

This was another busy day. We bought groceries for chemotherapy effects this morning while Wal-mart wasn't busy.

After these were stored in the transplant house, we went to the clinic for the first day of "killer chemo" of Craig's bone marrow and also picked up new medications. Craig will be on penicillin for the next year.

The infusion through Craig's central venous catheter took an hour. He needed his mouth cold for the hour. Why we don't know. He was forced to eat ice cream, ice cream bars, and ice chips. This will be repeated tomorrow, Day -1.

Friday, Day 0, we need to be at the hospital at 5:30 am for 8 hours of infusion of cells. The first 4 hours are for IV fluids and medication to overcome the side effects of the preservative in the frozen stem cells. Next, 22 bags of stem cells will be thawed in a water bath and infused through the central catheter. Then more IV fluids will finish off the day.

Now is the time Craig needs to eat high calorie foods. This is completely different than the way he's eaten for years. Later, it will take major effort for him to get 1000 calories per day. It made shopping today different from usual. He was able to indulge his taste buds and will be having whipping cream on his cereal and in his tea. He's looking forward to Culver's 850 calorie chocolate shakes and I'm expecting to gain weight from the change in diet.

For the remainder of Craig's stay, he will be checked once a day at Unit 94, the transplant in and outpatient wing. We hope his regular appointment won't be at 6:30 am.

The chemo side effects won't hit for about a week. Craig is wearing a filtration mask for about 3 weeks except for when in our room, showering, sleeping, or eating. We're washing hands often and carry hand sanitizer.

If he needs to be hospitalized because of infection, it will likely be around Day 7 to 10 when his white blood cell count is about 500.

If all goes well, we may get to come home the end of April.

It sounds like all is going well at home for Carl. Craig's parents stayed with him for 2 weeks. Jean Carlson, my mom, is with Carl now for a couple weeks. Carl has been able to follow his regular schedule except for missing a couple days of work due to a very sore throat.

When we talk to him, he sounds happy. Mom said today he asked if his mother was ever going to come home. When we told him about the stay in Rochester, he said we couldn't go and we had to stay home with him. As the time got closer to go, he said he wished we would stay home. But when we said good by at the Special Olympics state tournament, he was fine and happy to be with his friends on the team.

Gail