Day Plus 35,36,37,38,39,40-Back To The Hospital

Much can be said about these past six days (Wednesday Aug 23-Monday Aug 28). We went to the ER Wednesday night to figure out what was going on with my persisting fevers. In fact Wednesday night was the highest temperature I've had during all of this madness. I had brought a day's worth of extra clothes in my backpack along with a few snacks, and my phone and charger, anticipating they may keep me an extra day. WRONG. They ran a bunch of tests including CT scans, all of which came back negative, but decided to have me admitted into the hospital for monitoring shortly after midnight. They put me in a nice solo room in the F-Ground unit of the hospital, which is normally for hematology and oncology patients. It was very spacious and had a nice view out the window. It even had a bed with an inflatable mattress that would adjust as you moved around. This was my best room yet. Unfortunately my stay would be short-lived. As the doctors tried to rule things out, on Friday, they decided to have my chest catheter removed. It was the only foreign thing in my body so perhaps there was an infection from the line. It would make sense. For something that required outpatient surgery to put in, it came out within a second. It just took a quick pull by the PA, counting me down, and telling me to take a deep breath, and at exhale, it was out. It must have been a foot long tube. I was tempted to ask for it as a souvenir but I thought maybe not. In its place, they inserted some temporary peripheral IVs in each arm. Later that Friday afternoon, my nurse told me they were moving me again, the story of my life, this time back to where it all began, E1 unit.

Here was another twist to the hospital saga. On Friday, my social worker stopped by to tell us that if the patient is admitted back into the hospital, our housing situation could be revoked because it is meant for the patient, even though the caregiver is still living there, and there were people on the waiting list for the apartments. So if it were to come down to it, my wife, who is supposed to be my caregiver (let me stress CAREGIVER), would have to move 3 months worth of belongings using our small Camry into some storage unit or who knows where, and possibly have to sleep in the hospital atrium for who knows how many days. How heartless is that? Who came up with that policy? We found out later from the BMT nurses that in fact 7 out of 10 BMT patients end up back in the hospital for things just like this. Our social worker was the bearer of bad news. From what I was told, it wasn't a Stanford thing, and that our social worker would do her best to stretch it out as long as she could, possibly until Monday or Tuesday. I was tempted to just say well if you can't find anything wrong with me then I'm going home (our apartment) now. Fortunately for us, we trust in a God who is greater than any policy or bureaucracy. So before we moved to my new room, Becky and I just prayed.

1 Chronicles 29:11
Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.

As I was transported on my hijacked air cushioned bed from F-Ground, going back to the E1 unit brought back a flood of memories. My new room was 144A (A meant I had a window view and more storage). If there was an A, that meant that there was also a B, meaning I had a roommate once again. For now, let's call him Lazy Boy. He was a 20 year old kid from Dixon who had his mom with him everyday. On Saturday, after all the ongoing tests came back negative, I tested positive for Cytomegalovirus (CMV) which is a common virus that can infect almost anyone. Once infected, your body retains the virus for life. Most people don't know they have CMV because it rarely causes problems in healthy people. In fact both I and my sister who donated her bone marrow had the CMV virus already, like many people, but it was dormant in me as they tested for it regularly during my first hospital stay, when I was admitted to the ER on Wednesday, and the following days, until this Saturday when blood tests came back positive. They found it so early that it hopefully can be easily treated with medication. So that was what the doctors were saying was the cause of my fevers and possibly nausea. In order to be discharged I had to go 48 hours without a fever (anything below 100.4 deg Fahrenheit). So I spent the following days taking in fluids, and more meds, along with playing some new games on the phone, Clash of Clans and Clash Royale (thanks Julian and Mike), and watching the Dbacks sweep the Giants with Becky.

So, back to my roomie Lazy Boy. He wasn't as bad as the last guy, Big Country. But this kid was lazy. I was there for almost 4 days, and not once did he take a shower (even at the continual prompting of his nurses; it was always, "in a little bit"), brush his teeth, change his clothes, or do his mouth care (salt water rinses). He was constantly vomiting from chemo and getting diarrhea. You could only imagine the odors that were slowly building up on the other side of that curtain. All he would do was sleep, go on his phone, and watch tv, while his mom sat there on her tablet. In fact, he was so lazy, when his IV machine would beep, he would often just let it keep on beeping, never calling anyone on the intercom, until a nurse would randomly walk in. Imagine our annoyance hearing beep, beep, beep, beep for 20 minutes. Out of stubbornness on my end I wasn't going to call for him. But on one occasion I did call for my nurse to bring applesauce knowing she would walk over to his machine to fix his beeping. There was one awkward moment when we overheard Lazy Boy and his mom arguing, and him basically telling her to shutup on numerous occasions. It was sad, yet humorous and entertaining on our end as we could hear them just over the curtain.

On Saturday, one of my coworkers Joanna and her friend stopped by for a quick visit, bearing gifts and all. My coworkers decided to fill a small BioMarin rolling luggage with all sorts of Asian treats, magazines, and a Rivals for Catan 2 player board game. I couldn't believe how much stuff was in there. And they brought me a nice yellow orchid as well. I definitely could feel the BioMarin QA Validation love! I'm thankful for such a great group of folks that I work with. To cap off the night, I was also able to stream the Mayweather vs McGregor fight from my phone. It was a much better fight than I was expecting.

On Sunday, we were able to Skype into church service again for both morning and evening. One of the other cool things was being able to see and chat with some of the nurses and nurse assistants who previously took care of me during my first stay on E1. That is probably the only thing I will miss. With no fevers all day Sunday, Monday was definitely looking like a possible discharge date.

On Monday morning, one of the doctors came by to tell me they were going to discharge me later in the afternoon. In celebration, I ordered me a nice cheeseburger with bacon and soy cheese, along with potato wedges and a Pepsi. Unfortunately the bun withered in the covered plate as our pharmacist nurse came by to give us a teaching lesson on how to administer the Ganciclovir (used to treat my CMV) filled ball at home. The minute she left I devoured that burger, withered bun and all, and had visions of a Wendy's bacon cheeseburger. No restaurant food for me until 90 days following transplant. By 5pm that Monday, it was time to go. On my way out the door I passed by my roomie thinking of the Fresh Prince line, "Yo homes smell you later." I was once again wheeled out in a wheelchair to see the outside, feel the gentle breeze and heat from the afternoon sun. I was free once again and we still had an apartment, in God's always perfect timing.

Isaiah 55:9
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.