A Million Tests

 The last week has been filled to the brim with tests. 

On Wednesday the 18th we went down for Tony's bone marrow biopsy, but he had labs drawn first thing in the morning at 7:10. They took 15 different vials of blood, and did a urine sample. Then we met with the several different people. First it was a nurse practitioner, then the pharmacist came in to talk to us about a new medication that he needs to take for his liver. Then the nurse came in and told us that his bone marrow biopsy would need to be moved to Monday since his counts weren't up high enough yet. Then the social worker came in and got us set up to stay at the Hope Lodge during his week of chemo.  Then the nurse came back in and told us they'd accidentally looked at the previous weeks numbers and that they were going to do the biopsy. About twenty minutes later, they took us back for the biopsy, and then I got a frantic call from the nurse asking where we were. I told her we were in the procedure room and she told us not to start. She came in and let us know his counts had come back and they really were still too low. It was a bit of an odd day. 

Friday the 20th was a simple blood draw in Farmington. It showed that all his numbers were about the same as Wednesday. 

On Monday the 23rd, we went down to Huntsman for a day filled with tests. We started with a 7:50 blood draw. There nurse that drew his blood let him know she'd been pulled from a different part of the hospital. Then we went downstairs for a pulmonary function test, and they were able to get him back a little bit early. Then we had some extra time between appointments so we had breakfast in the cafeteria. Then we went back upstairs for a Echo cardiogram. Then was the dreaded bone marrow biopsy. It was one of the worst he's ever had. While she was pushing the needle into the back of his hip bone for a sample, it slipped into a hole from a previous biopsy and caused him a lot of pain. It also took about twice as much time as a previous biopsy (we asked about having the same guy as last time and found out he no longer works there :(    When they took us back for the biopsy, we let the nurse know that we hadn't seen any results from the mornings labs. She went to investigate and they couldn't figure out what happened, so they redrew the labs. Then we went up to the 4th floor for an Allo Education class. Unfortunately for us, we already know quite a bit about bone marrow transplants. So the 2 1/2 hour long class that was basically just read to us from power point slides and gave us no new information wasn't our favorite part of the day. But far less painful than the bone marrow biopsy, so I guess we'll take it. 

On Tuesday the 24th we got a message letting us know they didn't love Tony's Echo cardiogram. They set up an emergency appointment with a cardiologist for 8:20 for Thursday January 26th. 

Thursday, January 26th: The cardiologist was in Sugarhouse so we started the day there. They got us back pretty quickly and the cardiologist was very nice. They did an EKG and explained the situation to us. Tony has decreased left ventricular systolic function. (In plain English, healthy hearts squeeze blood out at above 50%. Tony's heart squeezes the blood out at 44%. They will not do transplants on patients who are under 40%.) They wanted a cardiologist to get a better look at it and decide if he was in a good enough condition to move forward with the transplant. They are putting him on 2 heart medications that she explained he'd likely be on for the rest of his life. The heart damage is likely caused by all the previous chemo he's had. She did sign off and say he should be ok to go forward with the transplant, but it did give us more to worry about. 

Next we drove up to Huntsman for his blood draw. Shortly after we had another education class, but this one was far more tailored to his exact schedule and very helpful. Afterwards, we found out that his CT scan (of his sinuses and lungs) was actually at the University of Utah Hospital, so we took the long underground pathway between the hospitals and spent a good deal of time wandering around trying to find where we needed to be. Thankfully, we were early, so once we figured out where the CT scan was, we walked over to the cafeteria and had a good lunch. Then it was the CT scan, and then back up to Huntsman for a meeting with the nurse practitioner. She answered a few of our questions about the heart problems and let us know we're just waiting on results from the bone marrow biopsy at this point. 

Coming up: 

On Monday, January 30th Tony will have labs and a meeting with his oncologist to sign all the paperwork for the Transplant. 

Tuesday, January 31st he'll get his port placed in his chest. 

February 1-5, he'll receive outpatient chemo (Fludarabine)

On February 6th he'll check into the hospital and receive one dose of the chemo Melphalan. 

Transplant will happen the next day on February 7th. 

He'll likely be in the hospital around 20 days. Then he'll need to be down in SLC for an additional 80 days.