Day "54"

Yesterday, for about thirty minutes, Jeff's urine was a nice yellow color...I have never been so excited looking at a urine bag in my entire life! However, it quickly turned to the old familiar red color. Today, when the urologists stopped by for their daily visit, they were excited and said it was looking better! I, on the other hand, had to bite my lip before I said a smart remark about the fact that it looked worse to me! Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I have been staring at the dang bag for five days now and praying for yellow--anything less is simply "worse" in my eyes! If his bladder is still bleeding on Monday, they are going to switch the medications he is receiving during bladder irrigation. Meanwhile, I will work on my bad attitude toward his hurdle in Jeff's VERY SUCCESSFUL BONE MARROW TRANSPLANT! I need to focus more on that!

Day "53"

As some of you may know...Jeff has some issues with the U of U hospital food from the cafeteria. I am sure it stems from the constant nausea and vomiting. :( For the last several weeks of his initial hospital stay, he would only eat from the BMT galley or TV dinners. Then on the next hospital stay, he only ate from the galley...NO TV DINNERS. Now, Jeff is no longer considered nutripenic (his blood counts are above a certain level), so he can eat outside food. It is good for him, but bad on the pocket book! Funny thing is that he will eat from the cafeterias at Huntsman and Primary Children's (both a good walk from here), but he will not even look at the menus from downstairs-- which is included in the "price" of this room! I tease him that he is pretty high maintenance, but he always comes back to the same statement..."If I am going to sit in this bed all day, I am at least going to eat good!" And "eat good" is exactly what he is doing!

Day "52"

So what does a man do when he has to sit in a bed hooked up to a catheter? Watch football, surf the Internet, watch the BCS Bowl game, complete word finds, watch football, think of all the places he loves to eat, watch football, write down a list of all the things that could have or have gone wrong in this transplant, and watch more football! Then, when his bladder is clamped off for two hours during treatment, he moves to different positions over and over again so the medication touches every part of his bladder...while being completely uncomfortable. Fun stuff...huh? We switched rooms last night, so he has a nice little flat screen tv with decent sound instead of the regular "tin can" hospital kind with speakers right at your head--you all know what I am talking about! :) So that makes the football games more enjoyable.

Day "51"

As of this moment, Jeff is receiving his fourth unit of blood today. His hemoglobin level dropped drastically yesterday, and they are still playing catch up. When we asked the doctor how long she thought we would be here, she mentioned that the study they are basing this new treatment on usually runs about seven days...we were just expecting a few. SO...our kids went home to St. George with Grandma and Grandpa Andrus so I could be here to cheer Jeff on as his bladder is clamped off for two hours at a time! :)

Day "50"...the HALF WAY MARK!

Today we are 50 days post transplant, which means we are half way through our Northern Utah "Winter Holiday!" We decided to celebrate this occasion by heading back the the BMT Unit for another (hopefully short) hospital stay! :( Last night, Jeff passed a huge amount of blood, and almost passed out a couple of times. So, as we discussed the bleeding issues with some of the doctors today at clinic, and showed them a picture I took of one of the clots (which I will refrain from posting) they decided to readmit him to the unit and try a different treatment. It will consist of pumping a certain medication (can't remember the name) into his bladder through a catheter, clamping it off for two hours, and then irrigating the bladder for four hours. This will be repeated over and over again until his urine is fairly clear for 48 hours! It was a BMT Doctors' idea. The urologist had never done it before, but he was willing to try. In one study, it completely healed the bladder of 50% of the patients. Wish Jeff luck!

Day "49"

Today Jeff had enough energy to play games and color with Kaitlyn on the floor...it didn't last to long, but it was priceless! I thought he would sleep all day since we had some bad IV pump issues last night. The alarm went off literally every 15 minutes to half hour! After trying every one of the troubleshooting ideas in the booklet, changing all the tubing, calling the on-call home infusion guy, and then changing the IV bag, I finally shut the stupid thing off at 4:30 a.m. and made Jeff drink water every hour until morning! :(

Day "48"

We are at clinic today, and Jeff is currently receiving two bags of platelets ...yes, his levels are still dropping a little. So, instead of sitting here watching TV, I decided to make this little video Jeff has been asking me to make for a couple weeks now. His parents have spent countless hours with him during this transplant experience. He and I have appreciated their dedication...and I REALLY appreciated the time I was able to slip away from the hospital and SHOWER! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Day "47"

Today was a bitter yet sweet day. Two nights ago, Jeff's father traveled up to Park City to tell him that his Uncle Blaine had passed away and his funeral was today. Uncle Blaine was only 55 years old, and no one had expected it. Jeff was overwhelmed with memories from his childhood of Uncle Blaine...most of them dealing with the deer hunt. He was determined to at least attend the viewing today. After a long night, it was hard to get Jeff up and going...so it was very apparent that we would not make the viewing. So, he decided to attend the funeral. As we drove up to the chapel, all of Jeff's brothers were waiting to help him. When we walked through the doors, we found that Aunt Lynette had been waiting for Jeff before they had the family prayer and closed the casket. It meant so much to Jeff AND his father. We stayed for the funeral ...sat at the back, mask on face, and hands in his pockets... and we were able to sneak out during the closing song. The funeral was a great tribute to Blaine's life, he was an amazing man. It was good for Jeff to get dressed up and go somewhere. It doesn't happen very often.

Day "46"

We are still sitting "tight," and Jeff is still passing obnoxiously huge blood clots. We came to the clinic today for blood work and a doctor visit. Jeff's white blood count and ANC plummeted down in the ones today. They believe it is just the immuno-suppressive drugs doing their job, but it sure puts him more at risk for infection. While we were at clinic, we insisted a urologist consult about the bladder. The BMT doctor we were visiting consulted with the urologist on call and several other people, and they again came to the same conclusion...relax and drink a lot of water! It makes me wonder if they have ever relaxed and drank a lot of water while urinating out golf ball sized clots of blood through their urethra!?! Sorry...I will end this post for now!

Day "45"

Happy New Year! Surprisingly enough, Jeff was awake for the final countdown of 2008! We hope 2009 brings health and happiness to all of you! It may not be a surprise, but Jeff is passing clots again. I'm sure that we ruined the New Year's Eve party the urology Dr. on call was at when we paged him and asked him a good 20 questions! Basically, we were told to have Jeff sit tight, drink a lot of water, and relax. He basically said that unless he absolutely can not urinate, there was no need to come back in and be irrigated. So we will try to do just that.