Float On..
It's Sunday evening and I am back from the hospital. I drove there Friday night to spend the weekend with Jenn in her cozy studio..eh hospital room. Friday night was nice and sorta calming. Jenn took her bucket o' pills, received her chemo treatment and showed me her brand new computer which of course I fell in love with. Friday night was sorta busy but we managed to eat dinner and Jenn fell asleep fairly early but was up throughout the night having to run back and forth to the bathroom and get vitals taken.
Saturday morning she was up at 6am which sorta shocked me. I was exhausted from my week and realized how I needed to get in hospital/caretaker mode..fast. Jenn went into the exercise room while I slept for another 30 minutes. She biked about 3 miles and then walked about half a mile around the floor. Somehow she has come up with the equation that 22 laps around the floor equals a mile and she did half that..no clue, but I will just let her have that one.
Late morning her folks came by and her dad & I drove out to Norwood to see the Colonial Inn, which is where we are having the silent auction and dinner on May 17th(mark yr calendar). We arranged some final details and wrote up a little dinner menu which I'm not sure I am thrilled with yet. I think I need to make some calls this week for that. Afterwards he took me out for lunch at this great Greek joint Jenn has told me about a million times but we never had the chance to go. We moved onto some shops in Norwood, bought Jenn her Gatorade, and then headed back to the hospital. Erica was there and I was happy to see her and as always enjoyed listening to stories about her job at the cafe. Eventually Jenn's parents left and then Erica headed back to the city. Jenn was sorta napping from some of the meds she was taking. She was getting nervous about the heavy amount of steroids she was going to be getting at 10:30pm. There are so many medications that she has been taking to prepare for this transplant, I am still amazed how wonderful she has been doing. This is my inspiration.
So finally it was time to take the pills and although Jenn was a bit nervous she popped them in her mouth and commented on how they tasted like shit, haha. She was already very tired and after she took the pills, I just put on some TV and rubbed her legs till she passed out. I was sorta waiting for her to get up and maybe have some type of emotional reaction but she slept for about an hour and then had to use the bathroom. I managed to fall asleep but would wake up when I heard her which was maybe once an hour or so. They have also begun the process of hydrating her and trying to flush out her system a lot even though she had a few chemo treatments left.
Sunday-Sunday-Sunday. Jenn slept in later than usual and I woke up thinking it was 10am but it was a little after 7am. The clocks were moved fwd an hour, but for some reason I felt as if I had gotten a lot of rest, ehh. Being in a hospital room makes you forget about time, very quickly. Jenn woke up a little later, and we went for a morning walk around the floor and then we had some breakfast and went over the details for the invites that I need to design and print up sometime this week *sigh*. There is so much to do with the May event, but I feel like we have made so much progress from 2 weeks ago. I am hoping Jenn stays well enough to continue her amazing tactics with this event, but I know the days will get harder and she will be sleeping and feeling crappy a lot.
Today she was finishing up her final chemo treatments, getting more steroids, anti-nausea, anti-fungal and viral meds, and probably another bucket of pills that she will be taking. She took a pill called Decadron and then she will also take something called ATG and this medication modifies your immune system. It's mixture of antibodies that recognizes key receptors on T-cells (part of the immune system, which are responsible for attacking and rejecting foreign substances within the body) ATG destroys these T-cells and decreases the risk of rejection. Whooosh, so much to remember. This is sorta scary because it can cause strange feverish side effects, but as usual we are all hoping that Jenn continues onward. They give a lot of these meds at night when patients are just about to go to sleep.
Saying good-bye to Jenn is never easy, but I know she is being taken care of and on her way towards this transplant in a few days. She is being so positive and taking such good care of herself. She is walking and trying to keep her strength. She told me today that her doctor said that exercising the legs and mind are the most important things to be doing. She is trying to eat 3 solid meals a day and last night she woke up and nibbled on a Kit-Kat at like 3am.
Please keep reading, thank you.
Love,
Alison
PS - below are some pics - Jenn having chemo and chatting on the phone, the views from her room, and there is a blood drive tomorrow in her hometown in norwood, nj.
Saturday morning she was up at 6am which sorta shocked me. I was exhausted from my week and realized how I needed to get in hospital/caretaker mode..fast. Jenn went into the exercise room while I slept for another 30 minutes. She biked about 3 miles and then walked about half a mile around the floor. Somehow she has come up with the equation that 22 laps around the floor equals a mile and she did half that..no clue, but I will just let her have that one.
Late morning her folks came by and her dad & I drove out to Norwood to see the Colonial Inn, which is where we are having the silent auction and dinner on May 17th(mark yr calendar). We arranged some final details and wrote up a little dinner menu which I'm not sure I am thrilled with yet. I think I need to make some calls this week for that. Afterwards he took me out for lunch at this great Greek joint Jenn has told me about a million times but we never had the chance to go. We moved onto some shops in Norwood, bought Jenn her Gatorade, and then headed back to the hospital. Erica was there and I was happy to see her and as always enjoyed listening to stories about her job at the cafe. Eventually Jenn's parents left and then Erica headed back to the city. Jenn was sorta napping from some of the meds she was taking. She was getting nervous about the heavy amount of steroids she was going to be getting at 10:30pm. There are so many medications that she has been taking to prepare for this transplant, I am still amazed how wonderful she has been doing. This is my inspiration.
So finally it was time to take the pills and although Jenn was a bit nervous she popped them in her mouth and commented on how they tasted like shit, haha. She was already very tired and after she took the pills, I just put on some TV and rubbed her legs till she passed out. I was sorta waiting for her to get up and maybe have some type of emotional reaction but she slept for about an hour and then had to use the bathroom. I managed to fall asleep but would wake up when I heard her which was maybe once an hour or so. They have also begun the process of hydrating her and trying to flush out her system a lot even though she had a few chemo treatments left.
Sunday-Sunday-Sunday. Jenn slept in later than usual and I woke up thinking it was 10am but it was a little after 7am. The clocks were moved fwd an hour, but for some reason I felt as if I had gotten a lot of rest, ehh. Being in a hospital room makes you forget about time, very quickly. Jenn woke up a little later, and we went for a morning walk around the floor and then we had some breakfast and went over the details for the invites that I need to design and print up sometime this week *sigh*. There is so much to do with the May event, but I feel like we have made so much progress from 2 weeks ago. I am hoping Jenn stays well enough to continue her amazing tactics with this event, but I know the days will get harder and she will be sleeping and feeling crappy a lot.
Today she was finishing up her final chemo treatments, getting more steroids, anti-nausea, anti-fungal and viral meds, and probably another bucket of pills that she will be taking. She took a pill called Decadron and then she will also take something called ATG and this medication modifies your immune system. It's mixture of antibodies that recognizes key receptors on T-cells (part of the immune system, which are responsible for attacking and rejecting foreign substances within the body) ATG destroys these T-cells and decreases the risk of rejection. Whooosh, so much to remember. This is sorta scary because it can cause strange feverish side effects, but as usual we are all hoping that Jenn continues onward. They give a lot of these meds at night when patients are just about to go to sleep.
Saying good-bye to Jenn is never easy, but I know she is being taken care of and on her way towards this transplant in a few days. She is being so positive and taking such good care of herself. She is walking and trying to keep her strength. She told me today that her doctor said that exercising the legs and mind are the most important things to be doing. She is trying to eat 3 solid meals a day and last night she woke up and nibbled on a Kit-Kat at like 3am.
Please keep reading, thank you.
Love,
Alison
PS - below are some pics - Jenn having chemo and chatting on the phone, the views from her room, and there is a blood drive tomorrow in her hometown in norwood, nj.
posted by Jenn at 4:55 PM
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