Monday, January 31, 2011

Call Jen for detailed updates. 530-894-2080

The team of doctors at UCSF have recommended a 30 day stay to give Dad a heavy duty dose of chemo. It will be exactly the same as his very first stay that put him in remission and removed his pain. They are hoping it will again put him into remission.

If you want to call him, him number is 415-514-5316. His cell phone has bad reception and isn't reliable.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Dad had the bone marrow biopsy this morning at 9 and the results should be in this afternoon. Becky said they had to go deep to get a sample since they couldn't get any of the aspirate that they wanted. This happened last year when he had the original biopsy done too. There was a student doctor who wanted a bit extra of the aspirate for teaching/studying and they couldn't get any then either. 

Becky said last night Dad was restless but the Dilaudid on Demand every 30 minutes was great.

I'll update as soon as we get the results and an idea of what the plan will be.

UPDATE 2:30 P.M.:
He's been moved up to the 11th floor, room 1105. His number there is 415-514-5316. His cell seems to work in this room if you want to call that instead.

I talked to him briefly but he is REALLY hard to understand. The massive amounts of pain killers are giving him marble mouth. I can tell he's trying hard to string thoughts together, but he's pretty tired and it doesn't seem to come out quite right. Once they start chemo and the pain subsides a little he'll be easier to talk to. Hopefully that's only a couple days from now!

UPDATE 5 P.M.:
Preliminary results are in, yes the leukemia is back, but not much else is known. Stay tuned for additional info...

Friday, January 28, 2011

Just got a call from Dad, he's on his way down to UCSF today. He said there were seral phone calls back and forth and he was told to come today. His bishop is taking him down.

He'll have a bone marrow biopsy hopefully today, but may not be until tomorrow. The initial results tend to come in within a couple of hours so we might know something as early as this evening. If we do, I'll post it ASAP.

UPDATE 1:40 P.M.:

Talked to Becky, she said they have a room for him on the 9th floor until they can get him a room back on the 11th floor. She will be heading down tonight or tomorrow depending on whether he has a single room or not for her to sleep.

I also called Dad back to see if his bishop could stay with him this evening while he gets situated but due to the church members dropping like flies in Paradise, he needs to head back to handle things. 

So, I called Candy. She said she'll head over to UCSF this afternoon to get an update from the Dr. and nurses and ask some questions. Thanks, Candy! We needed some eyes and ears on site!

So, if you have any questions, post them here in the comments section and we'll try to get you some answers. No question is too dumb or too trivial! (We'll leave those questions to Bryce who asks if he's allowed to eat the food I just handed him. Now that's a dumb question.) We're all new to this so ask away!

UPDATE 8 P.M.:

Candy is at the hospital with Dad keeping him company. His blood pressure is fine, heart rate a bit high and a slight fever. He'll have the bone marrow biopsy done tomorrow, so we'll know a lot more then. He has his favorite pain med, Dilaudid on IV demand, so he just hits the button when he needs more. Giving him some control over that will help everyone involved!

He should have been getting a transfusion this evening too due to low hemoglobin.

Becky is on her way down and should be there soon. I'll talk to her tomorrow to get the results from the biopsy.

Dad's direct room number is: 415-514-5215. His cell phone doesn't work well on the side of the hospital that he's on.

Dad and Candy

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Dad has been in and out of the ER several times lately due to the intolerable chest pain and back pain. He's been taking lots of pain meds and the hospital gives him the Dilaudid via IV which is the best, but only works for several hours to take the edge off, then it's back to where he was. 

He went for another blood test today and he needed more platelets AGAIN. His numbers were very low.

He said he finally heard back from UCSF and they want him to come in next week regardless of his condition and his blood counts. They want to do another bone marrow biopsy. They are thinking that the leukemia might be back. This would explain the pain that is similar to what it was when he was diagnosed. Not great news.

We don't know what the treatment would be should he fail to be in remission, but I'm sure we'll get plenty of info if that happens.

In the meantime, cross your fingers and pray your ass off for him. He needs it.

Love you Dad, hang in there.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Dad called me last night to let me know that he's still home and having some fairly serious issues with his blood counts. Apparently, he's had a nosebleed since he got home from the hospital and it's not the usual thick, stick-ish dark red blood but a more watered down version. He then started bruising dark bruises all over and having horrible back pain. He went to the hospital on Friday night where they said that he was in desperate need of platelets (blood clotters). When they did the blood work they found his platelet level at a 3 instead of the usual 140 - 300. Not great.They also gave him lots of painkillers for the back pain.

He had a blood test again this morning and needed more platelets. Seems those helped the back pain! His red and white counts were fine, but they thought that he might have an aneurysm on/near his heart which was quite a scare. They did some more tests and found that this is not the case - whew! He has another blood draw on Thursday and should his numbers be o.k., he'll be heading back down to UCSF for his second to last stay.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Nancy and I saw Dad on Saturday night to say hi and bring him a pumpkin pie (I'm not ready for the season to be over!). He's been having a lot of spleen pain which is due to the methotrexate that he gets on his short stays. It's been getting worse and the doctors tell him it will continue to worsen over the next two visits. Not great news since he needs to be drugged up to deal with the pain and the coinciding fever gives him uncontrollable chills. Good thing the next two visits are short ones, but they won't be as painless as we'd hoped.

He is keeping himself busy while at the hospital though. He brought home a stack of "sign up sheets" that he posted on his hospital door on a daily basis. They started with a simple, "Gone Fishin'" and progressed to Alaska Bear Hunting Trips and an Alcatraz trip. He actually got other patients and the entire HVAC crew to sign up for his "trips"! Too funny. These will go into the scrapbook that Nan will make him once his hospital stays are over.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Dad called UCSF today and they had a bed ready for him, so he caught a ride with his neighbor who was heading back down to the bay area. He should hopefully be out on Thursday and be home for 10 days before going back in for another short stay. Just 2 more short stays after this one, and he's done! Yippee!