day +11

Good news - he's engrafting!
For most of last week, his white blood cells were at 0.01, which is very, very low (.01 away from none?) on Sunday they went up to 0.04. Monday they were at 0.09 & today they are 1.1.  This means that the new cells are setting up shop & making new ones. He was getting platelet transfusions, but they've stopped giving them to him because those are also on a tiny little increase on their very own.
He's off the morphine they gave him to ease the pain in his mouth & he ate some food I brought for him from home - which was great because he said he could actually taste it!
Lots of little progress, which I am so pleased about!

I realize I have not blogged about anything crafty for a while - I'm still at it & I've finished up some projects that I just need to take some photos of. Sadly, knitting is slow going for me these days on account of I got a bad case of Mother's Wrist. It got so bad that even pulling my sheets up over me when I got into bed made my eyes well up. I got Dr's orders to wear a wrist brace *all the time* for 6 weeks - which suuuuuuucks but hopefully it'll help out my wrist. I can still knit, it's just not as fast or as relaxing as it should be for me.

I get in some knitting everyday though, and now I have a little helper:

one week.

Sorry I'm not posting more, but the truth of it is that there's not much to write about!

Gord's blood counts are all way, way down in the dumper (right on schedule), he's tired, queasy, sore in the mouth, but generally he is doing pretty good - definitely better than I was expecting. I hope I'm not eating my words in a couple of days though. The nurse told him yesterday that now until engraftment (usually around day +18, we're on day +8 now) takes place is when he'll feel the worst. Here's hoping the next week & a half is just as uneventful as these first 8.

Yesterday after I picked Frankie up from the PMH daycare (which, by the way is such an amazing, amazing service offered by he hospital. I am really truly amazed by it!) I brought her up to the doors of Gord's unit. He's not allowed to leave & kids under 9 aren't allowed in, so I stood with her at the little window in the door so they could see each other. It was so nice. I think Frances was really starting to notice he wasn't around - she had huge, huge smiles when she saw him.

The daycare is closed on the weekends & Frankie has her 6 month check-up on Monday so I won't be back to visit him until Tuesday - these next 3 days are going to feel very long.

A while ago, I saw these alphabet rings from Catbird & immediately wanted them. Three of them. They arrived to me (after some fancy shipping arrangements) the other day & I am thrilled. I love looking down & seeing my little family hanging out on my finger together.

so far, so good.

I meant to come on & write an update on transplant day but I didn't get a chance. I have no excuse, really, since the transplant was actually pretty boring.

We (Gord's mom, my dad & I) got there right when he was being hitched up to his new cells. It took about an hour. Gord was a bit dopey from the Benadryl they gave him so he just rested & I stared at the little red bag. The tiny bag full of new cells from someone (in Europe, but we know nothing more than that) dripped into him. Quietly saying 'Thank You'. Boring. Just the way they like it.

After it was done, he ate his lunch & felt awake & alert & hungry enough to ask that I get him some Ten Don from the Japanese place near by.

My mom stayed home with Frances & stayed over that night so I could visit with him on Saturday. When I saw him yesterday he was feeling mostly good, just super tired. And although he's the one who is going through transplant, I was the one who napped during our visit.

So now we just wait...for what? For him to feel shitty, which apparently is a GOOD thing as it means the new cells are making themselves at home & engrafting.

It feels weird to not be able to just go there & hang out with him all day like I've been able to do in the past. Luckily, Frankie seems to really enjoy the daycare at the hospital - although this week hasn't been good at all for her nap schedule. Babies are resilient though & this is just a short time (hopefully).

I didn't take any photos of anything that happened in the last couple of days so here's a picture of Gord serenading the Lady the day before he went into the hospital.  Ain't they sweet?

The cells are in the building.
Friday at around 10:30am is transplant time.
He's going in strong.

Think of him. I really do believe in the power of many people sending positive energy at the same time.

xo

and.......go!

You know the sound of a train starting up? (If you don't, go to youtube & type 'train start up' and get lost in the world of trainspotters....then come back here). It's what I keep thinking about. This train's starting up & there's a lot of track to travel.

Gord was admitted into PMH on Saturday and promptly came home on an overnight pass. Hooray! We had Thanksgiving dinner at our friend's house & got home in time to put Frankie to bed & then he took a cab back to the hospital. He kissed me goodbye & I stood at the top of the stairs casually waving at him, telling him I loved him & I'd talk to him soon. Just like when he'd leave for work in the morning.

His transplant will be on the 14th, but before then he has to go through a really intensive chemo & full body radiation. That will (hopefully) kill off any tiny Leukemia cells that are squatting in his system & will basically make his blood into just a red liquid in his veins. Then, in what sounds like the most uneventful life saving procedure ever, they will inject the donors cells into him by way of IV. They said it will take about 20 minutes.Then we wait for engraftment. There. Just like that. Isn't science cool?

Of course we know it's not as simple as that but why get yourself tangled up in all that could possibly happen? We know there will be the regular cast of characters - pain, nausea, weakness, fatigue, high risk of infection, nasty mouth sores. They gave us extensive lists of possible & common side-effects and risks but I'm really hoping things go as smoothly as they possibly can.

During his time in the hospital the toughest thing will be not being able to see Frankie. Kids under 10 aren't allowed on the transplant floor. Luckily there is a daycare there that I can drop her off at while I go hang out with G. In fact, we're going for the first time tomorrow. I hope she does okay. I'm a little worried about naps. They told me that if I just tell them how I get her down, they'll do the same. Okay: feed her, put a soother in her mouth, put her in the mai tai, sometimes she needs a hat to cover her eyes & shut off the stimulation, then put on a record (usually I-Roy) & then pat her bum & sway. I guess we'll just have to see how it goes.

So yeah - I'm knitting stuff & I got some fancy finished things to show off but I wanted to come & post an update & will probably use this space to let family & friends know what's up.