The title because Eric loves Taylor Swift. Does anyone have a hook up for tickets? We tried to get 2, but were unsuccessful :(
Eric didn't have to go in for a check up this week, but his dr asked us to go to Lifelabs to keep an eye on his bloodwork since his platelets were so low last week. We went Thursday after school. On Friday late afternoon his doctor called and let us know that some blasts had shown up in his bloodwork. Additionally his platelets were down again and now his hemoglobin was down as well. All bad news. His doctor asked us to go into the hospital on Saturday (yesterday) for bloodwork. He said as long as Eric was feeling well we should be able to go home, but to pack a bag just in case. He also advised that Eric would need a bone marrow biopsy early next week.
Eric and I went into the hospital yesterday. The clinic is closed on weekends so we went into the ward where he gets a comfy bed, I get a comfy recliner and we had a beautiful view of the colourful fall trees. And thank heaven, because we were there for more than 8 hours! Since we were going for noon, I had asked Eric if he wanted me to bring hotdogs to the hospital for lunch or if he wanted to stop at McDonald's on the way in. He chose McDonald's but I had a complete brain fart and forgot to stop on the way there!! So I had to order Door Dash to the hospital.
We use emla to numb the port site for access. We generally put it on before we leave the house and its perfectly numb when we get to the hospital. Unfortunately yesterday our nurse was busy with another patient when we arrived and the numbing must have worn off because Eric screamed, and usually he's really good about the port access. To add insult to injury, she missed the port. This happens in the ER all the time because they aren't as experienced but almost never happens on the 8th (oncology) floor. Eric does seem to have a difficult port; its quite deep so more difficult for them to find and grasp. Of course the McDonald's arrived at the same time as our nurse so Eric had to wait until after the attempted access to eat his lunch and the fries were cold - this might have been the biggest injustice of yesterday.
Anyhow, after the failed port access, we decided to put on more emla and wait an hour before trying again. New nurse and she got it first time, but now it was 2:30 before the bloodwork was drawn and sent to the lab. The dr came to check in at 3 and said she'd go to the lab to check on the bloodwork. She came back at 4pm to say that Eric's platelets were now 23. Since he wasn't bleeding, it was safe to send us home, so up to us whether or not we wanted to do a transfusion. I opted to do the transfusion because with the bad cells showing up, it isn't likely that the platelets would come up on their own, so he will need the transfusion sometime soon anyhow. Additionally, I was worried we'd go home and he'd get a nose bleed over the long weekend and we'd just have to come back. Unfortunately, Eric is allergic to platelets. So he is given pre meds to counteract an allergic reaction and also given specially treated psoralen platelets. However, the blood bank at the hospital didn't have any of the psoralen platelets on site, so they had to be ordered. Eric had a nice Benadryl induced nap while we waited for the platelets to arrive. He got the platelets, had his port de-accessed, we made a pb&j from the ward kitchen and hit the road making it home just before 9pm.
A pathologist (I think that was who it was) came in to look at the blast cells, but couldn't provide any definitive information. He will need the bone marrow biopsy to confirm. This is the same thing that happened when he was originally diagnosed, since his disease originates in the marrow. His bone marrow biopsy is scheduled for Wednesday. Until then, we just wait and try to enjoy our Thanksgiving weekend.
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