Tuesday Dec 10...day 11
Received a phone call this morning from Dr Peter Downie, Tim's oncologist from Melbourne. Very grateful for his call and his level of care and interest. Tim had a good night sleep. Diarrohea still present but not as frequent. Nausea has increased and vomiting up phelgm. Increased the dosage of ondansetron from 4mg to 8mg in conjunction with maxalon. If this does not help he will have dexamethasone 2mg @ 8 hourly and if nausea continues lorazepan which has a sleeping effect. We have quite a few options. I have seen Tim much worse but he is feeling lousy at the moment. Tim had a coag blood test this afternoon as there was blood in his urine. Having an albumin infusion due to protein loss. He still has mucositis, mouth red but no ulcers as yet. Had chest x-ray due to moist cough. Physio paid him a visit and went through his leg exercises and respiratory paces to try to help bring up that phlegm. As the day went on Tim was beginning to slide - a bit flat this afternoon.
Tim is hanging out to go fishing with you David. Plenty of good places to go up here. He would love to leave that sign "GONE FISHING". Thanks for your gift it arrived yesterday. Also to Deb Wood for her little surprise (very clever - did you get my text msg?) Thank you everyone for your cards and emails. In time Tim will feel better, it is just the waiting game to determine the next stage. Just one day at a time.
Wednesday Dec 11...day 12 Not much changed with Tim today, slightly improved. Waiting for his bone marrow to show recovery. This is a worrying stage as it can go either way - it may recover with normal cells which means we push on (that's good) or it may recover with blast cells which means Tim would not be curable .Only Tim's body will determine what happens next and all the Doctors can do is help support anything like infection - they can't make good cells.
Still vomiting phelgm with blood - started zantac yesterday. Urine tested o.k. today, no traces of blood. He still has a moist cough and the chest x-ray taken yesterday was clear. He had physio again today and would prefer Tim to sit up more. She worked with Tim really well and left him sitting in a recliner chair as he tapped on his own laptop. This was an unexpected gift from Dad and now Tim feels he has some control of his emails. Pre BMT work up tests start tomorrow in anticipation the transplant eventuates. Don't get too excited, there are no promises. With Christmas approaching it is more time management and who knows it just may happen. Matthew needs a blood test for tissue typing again and a whole range of things - all routine for BMT donor. Likewise Tim has his own tests. Our tarago arrived today safely with bikes inside. The children have some games to play now. Thank you Cathy and Scott for arranging this and driving the car out to Campbellfield Monday morning and to the Leukaemia Foundation for financing it. Dave from Phil's work kindly lent us some toys and a Christmas tree with lights. We have had some invitations for the children to have a swim in their pool and Phil has been told of some factory clothing outlets to visit to Matthew and Jessica's delight.
