Monday January 24th

Well today I went into KU and had my line (trifusion catheter) taken out. Now tomorrow I can enjoy a shower without press and seal for the first time in a couple of months. It did its job and never gave me any problems (no blood clots or infections), and allowed me to have labs drawn, etc without any issues. Kristy was able to come in and watch the line be removed as she knew the tech, and so she took some pics.
Last Thursday I went into the BMT clinic for a regular checkup. My counts are holding okay but my red blood cells are not multiplying as they should be at this point in time.  So they checked my EPO level thinking that this may be the culprit to my anemia. EPO is a hormone that helps stimulate RBC's be produced in bone marrow.
Also I am still enjoying nausea most of the time and finding it hard to eat and drink. This is unusual and should have disappeared by now, so I spent Friday in the hospital watching radioactive isotopes go through my body! It was a 6 hour test so a very boring day for me. The results showed that my small intestine is not working very well and not processing food very well so this could be the reason for my nausea and aversion to food and drink. One of the side effects of many chemotherapies is neuropathy, which most people experience as peripheral neuropathy (tingling and numbness in hands and feet).  The GI doctor I saw believes that I have an extension of that called autonomic neuropathy, so the nerves to my intestines are "stunned".  The good thing is that he think with some pretty minor treatment it could be reversed within about 3 months.

Ready to have this line out.

It took quite a lot of tugging!

Thursday Jan 13th 2011. Clinic visit.

Well I've been a bit lax, I did go to clinic last week and didn't write anything. The main story from last week is that I'm not eating or drinking very much. I've lost 20 lbs and am a little dehydrated. Creatinine still came down a little to 2.9 and all my other counts are still headed in the right direction. Fatigue is still an issue, I guess a big issue that will last a while.
So since last Thursday I have added a liter of fluid IV everyday and thanks to an appetite stimulant have eaten a little more than last week. So we'll see where things are today...
Creatinine is down to 2.65 which is great, sadly I'm still here after 5 hours getting a blood tranfusion! All my other (white blood cell, red blood cell and platelet) counts dropped. Which is a little annoying but nothing to be concerned about...or so my doctor says. So I need to come back for another blood test next Thursday. They also said they will be taking out my central line soon which will be nice. I long to have a shower when I don't have to cover half my chest with press and seal!