DAY- 84

Today was our sixth day in the hospital as we waited for the the neurological team of doctors to return from their Memorial Day weekend. The past days have been uneventful, and Jan's pain has been managed with morphine. In preparation for Jan's surgery this afternoon her platelets needed to be increased from 23,000 to 100,000. One bag of platelets was given Monday evening which raised her platelet number to 70,000. A second bag of platelets was given this morning, which raised the count once again, this time to 99,000. This was close enough for the neurological team and she was taken to surgery at 2:00 P.M. The procedure was performed by a female neurosurgeon named Dr. Jain. In addition to Jan's procedure, Dr. Jain had five other surgeries on the docket for today, including two craniotomies. The procedure she performed on Jan is called a balloon kyphoplasty...............

http://www.spineuniverse.com/displayarticle.php/kyphoplasty-questions-2790.html

Jan was placed under general anesthesia around 2:15. The surgery lasted less than an hour and went fine. She was returned to her room via stretcher at 5:00 P.M. She has plastic bubbles wrapped around both legs which are connected to a pump. The pump automatically inflates and deflates the plastic cast and aids in the prevention of blood cots. They told Jan to expect pain related to the procedure for the next two days. They fully expect her to be up and around by tomorrow, moving slowly of course. We are hopeful that she will be discharged in the next day or two so that we can return to our temporary apartment home. We begin our third month in the apartment tomorrow. We hope that we will be able to return to our home in Valrico in the next few weeks. We have recently learned that our avocado tree of ten years, which has never born fruit, has hundreds of small avocados growing. Jan is anxious to eat a home-grown Valrico avocado. We have not received any further information on the E-Coli urinary infection, but we believe that it is being well managed with the correct antibiotic. If all goes well, we should be able to resume Jan's recovery schedule very soon. The next major hurdle will be to strengthen her legs which have been weakened by the steroids to the extent that she has not been able to get out of bed, or stand from a seated position, for the past five weeks. This, they tell us, is not unusual for patients on high dose Prednisone. It has now been seven months and thirteen days since Jan was diagnosed with AML.

DAY 81

I'm sorry for the lack of updates, but there really hasn't been much to report that was good, so I've just been procrastinating and waiting for a positive turn. Actually, there is some good news, the BK Virus is history, and along with it Jan's urinary distress is gone. However, this past Thursday Jan was having her vital signs checked, and was being moved from a laying position to a sitting position when she had a sudden stabbing pain in her back. She was once again admitted to the hospital and an MRI was run that evening. The results showed that she has two compression fractures of her lumbar spine, specifically L-2 and L-3. She is scheduled for surgery on Tuesday afternoon, so we remain in the hospital. She was on complete bed rest for the first two days, and was not allowed to move from her bed. She is being given morphine for pain. Last night they fitted her with a back brace, and today she was permitted to leave the bed to go to the bathroom. She must wear the brace, and we have to be ever so gentle moving her. This long and bumpy road seems more like a dark and crooked alley where evil awaits at every turn. I will explain more later about the surgical procedure, but I will say that's it's much improved over the invasive surgeries of years past. We still are hopeful for brighter days, but this is definitely another setback.

Miles for Moffitt - Mission Accomplished!

Hey Everybody - Jason here again. Yesterday was quite a day. The Miles for Moffitt event happened. A group of us participated in the 5k walk/run around the campus of USF where the route had us pass the Moffitt Cancer Center.

The event kicked off a little late due to the enormous turnout, so we started our journey around 8:00 AM. The adventurous of the group mixed the walk and run, working up a nice sweat on that humid Saturday morning. After downing an apple or two we all got together for a "photo finish" (shown here).

Many, many thanks to those family and friends that came out (from left to right in the picture): Kerry, Kelly, Christy, Alicia, me (Jason), Jeff, and Kim. Also, not shown is Jessica, thank you!

It was a great event to be a part of with our thoughts and prayers being with Mom the whole time. We love you, Mom!

Happy Mothers' Day to all the mamas out there!

T Plus 65

Twelve straight days of I.V. fluids concluded this past Monday when Jan received her second dose of the anti-viral medication. When we told the doctor that Jan was now drinking at least two liters a day, he said let's try going without daily I.V. fluids and see how it goes. Today (Thursday) we had more labs and her renal functions were within normal limits, and she was not dehydrated, so the extra fluid intake is working. There really hasn't been much to report these past days. The urinary tract issues still continue as we wait for the BK Virus to come under control. Possibly there has been some minor improvement in the urinary frequency and urgency, but we still have a ways to go. The other main issue right now is weakness and fatigue. Jan's legs are like rubber. Nearly all of her complaints (weakness, fatigue, fuzzy vision, puffy cheeks, high blood sugar) are all being attributed to the steroids (specifically the Prednizone). She is being tapered off this med, so we are hopeful that many of these complaints will soon subside. Some of her other complaints (tremors) are also medication (Tacrolimus) related, and this drug has also been lowered in dosage. All of her lab work continues to be excellent. Most of her difficult recovery right now is due to the medication, the viral infection, and the trauma of a bone marrow transplant. The viral infection is being treated, the meds are being reduced, and the rest just takes time. Our goal today is to get through Day-65. Tomorrow, we'll try to get through Day-66. We know that we are approaching Day-?? when things will be much, much better.