Transplant -7 (Thursday)

Wow....long day!

The day began at 6:00. We had to be at the out-patient surgery center at 7:15. It took until 12:45 to get everything completed. Jackie did fine with her central line insertion. She is really sore in a couple of places. The central line (Hickman Device) is inserted in through an incision in the lower neck. One end is fed via a wire down the next through one of the major arteries into the superior vena cava just above the heart. The other end is tunneled under the skin about 6 inches below the first incision. It exists and splits in to two IV lines. Part of the time this morning was teaching me how to care for the line. The dressing and end caps have to be changed one a week (at least) and the lines have to be flushed with Heparin every day.

After the central line she had about 3.5 hours of Rituxan chemo infusion. After that she had a sinus X-ray. This was supposed to be part of the original screening process, but they forgot to include it.

Finally Jackie underwent about 5 hours of IVIG (immunoglobulin) infusion to strengthen her immune system. This lasted until 9:45 PM. It is now a little after 11:00 and we begin again in the morning with the first chemo infusion of Fludarabine. This is the first of the heavy duty chemo treatments that will kill off all her cells in preparation for the transplant. It is expected she will be sick after these treatments. They have prescribed 3 different anti-nausea medications. She has a chemo infusion tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday. Monday is a day off from chemo (at this point) with radiation scheduled for Tuesday and transplant on Wednesday.

We received a nice "goody" basket from Tami Greene and some Spring-themed/Easter items from Tiff. Tiff also included 3 baking pans and a box (with directions) for a homemade desert. I told Jackie I could cook for her when she became unable. I told her I could cook anything...as long as it came in a box and had directions printed on the side.

Until tomorrow.

Bruce and Jackie
from Rochester, MN