Day +1-Baseline Stats

Classmates in waiting

>Deb is surrounded by two classmates with have been with us several years. The young lady is from Austria and has a ten year old there living with her parents. She has bone marrow failure and her myeloma treatment has all been non-standard because of it. The fellow, Dave is having his 46th birthday in-clinic today. He is a teacher from NY.

>Last night Deb had low-grade fever and sleeplessness. She was obviously a 5.5  on the Woozy meter

>Meds used previously to help get Deb's immune system/white blood count up with other chemo protocols are not allowed on this experimental protocol. Growth Factor shots are the most important normally. They 'kick-start' the immune system. But not in this case. Deb's body has to recover on it's own.  Although Deb is number six of the 30 allowed test subjects, she is the first to get a donor's cells that have never been frozen or put into storage. These are called 'active' cells. Deb is number one in the world ever! Theoretically, this will give the very best results. We'll see!

Deb was freezing at times, so she got the Mommy-Mummy treatment from Vern

>Today we showed up the first time  at 7:30am. Labs and meds. Deb needed platelets which were not available, so at lunch we returned to the condo until some could be located. About 3 pm they were available, so back to to the clinic until about 6 pm tonight. With our active social life of condo>hospital>condo, Deb and I enjoy playing the game 'What's for Supper?' Today, Deb wanted Turkey Spaghetti. This is a variation of Deb's wonderful Chicken Spaghetti recipe she used to make. I (Vern) cannot eat chicken-it produces crippling gout. That's a rotten deal-not being able to eat your favorite food, but Turkey is just a really big chicken, right?

So, on the way home tonight, we made the list of needed ingredients and stopped by Kroger. Deb extremely neutrapenic, stayed in  the car and Vern did the shopping. When Vern came out of the store, there was a hurricane blowing, it seemed! Sideways rain and wind. When we got back to the condo, I went in and got Deb's rain gear so she could get inside reasonably dry. I on the other hand resembled a drowned rat!

Between clinic sessions, Pharmacy angel Carla helped us with a bag of meds. Thanks, Carla!

>Between the two clinic sessions, Deb needed a quiet nap at the condo. After tucking Deb in, I went to several neighborhood garage sales and found two very nice study Bibles at a great price. It always amazes me how such a priceless thing like a Bible is so under-valued by much of society.

After the garage sales, a short trip to the nearby guitar store gave me a needed break. A store manager, PJ,  is a part-time pastor who is working there while helping start a new church. He is encouraging to chat with from time to time. I'm always trying out the very nice guitars, far nicer than I'll ever have. While strumming a nice Martin, a elderly gentleman wandered in and sat to listen to my plunking. He picked up another Martin and joined in on some of the old 1930's tunes I love to play. Then he picked out a few tunes. I began to challenge him to play my list of favorites. Man, he was good. We sang a few together and we both had a good time for a half-hour.

He said he was from Pine Bluff, about 40 miles south of Little Rock, and asked where I was from. Atlanta, I said. What brings you here? Wife's cancer treatment at UAMS, I said. Oh, my wife died of cancer and was treated there, he said. She had breast cancer which turned into leukemia. We really loved the staff at UAMS. They were like friends and family. Who is your wife's doctor? Dr van Rhee, I said. Frits? He asked incredulously. He was my wife's doctor! He is wonderful! I agreed!

What a surprise for both of us!

Then the call came that the platelets had been located, so I headed back to the condo to wake up Deb and get her to clinic. She was a 7 on the Woozy meter by then and needed a lot of help.

By the time Deb was back in the bed and being treated this late afternoon, she was whipped! Our friend Lisa, Deb's bud since Jr High, recorded a piano cd of hymns she and Deb have played and sung since the sixties.  I love it also! The music is so melodic and peaceful and I often play it for Deb when she is stressed.This afternoon I  played it all for Deb. She was calmed very much.

We had a hard day today, but because of the wonderful care Deb gets from the staff here at UAMS, it seems like we spend our time with close friends instead of cold staffers! Thanks to all the UAMS angels!

Tomorrow starts at 07:30am again. Platelets have been ordered for the next few days since they are so  hard to locate Deb's needed specs.

Yesterday before the infusion of Natural Killer cells, complete labs were done to establish the pre-infusion baseline. Here are a few things that are key indicators to Deb and me as we know what our day will probably be like.

White Count-below 2 is neutrapenic and indicates Deb's vulnerability for infection.
Platelets-a whitish colored component of blood. Low platelets=higher Woozy factor!
CRP-An indicator of relative health. Lower is better. When the number creeps up, Deb could be getting sick.

Day 0-before infusion               Day 1
White Count-0.04                       0.07
Platelets-29                                 15
CRP-12.8                                    77

Blessings!