Stupid time change aside, we had a pretty good weekend. We were lucky enough to be gifted tickets to the Canucks by Starlight Children's Foundation. They usually gift a pair of tickets, but this time we were actually offered 2 pairs! They were not in the same section, but I was excited for Joel to be able to attend as well. Unfortunately, for Chuck, he was away in Edmonton for school, but that was pretty fortunate for Grandma who got to attend with us! Sadly the Canucks lost to Dallas, but we all had a great time.
And we had a visitor at home while we were out. Apparently the very short hibernation is over in the Lower Mainland.
After having an unplanned visit last week due to a nose bleed, Eric had two clinic visits scheduled for this week on Tuesday and Friday.
Tuesday's appointment was at 9:30 and traffic was horrific - no accidents, just volume. It took 1 hour and 10 min to get there and when we arrived they were digging up part of the parking lot so parking was also a nightmare! We ended up arriving at clinic quite late for the appointment. Eric's nurse accessed his port easily. Actually, we've learned that spate of difficulty with accessing his port was related to a problem with one lot of the needles. Thank heaven that is over; it was awful.
Eric's platelets were low, so he received a platelet transfusion. His hemoglobin was also low and borderline for needing a transfusion. It would need to happen either Tuesday or Friday and I was too tired to make a decision. (Stupid time change!) However, Eric was quite certain that Tuesday was not the day. On the plus side, his team is able to plan ahead for Friday so it should be quicker, which is definitely a win when you have to have 2 transfusions in one visit. On the not so positive side, Eric has been absolutely exhausted all week. His treatment causes fatigue and then his low hemoglobin also causes low energy.
In addition to the fatigue, his neutrophils, the germ fighting white cells, which are always low, have bottomed out from his treatment. They are reported as too low to count. Given the fatigue and the increased risk of illness, he didn't make it to school at all this week.
Our next clinic appointment was supposed to be Friday, but we almost ended up with a Thursday appointment. Our booking clerk emailed me with a Thursday appointment saying the clinic was so full on Friday that they didn't have room for Eric. I used to think only Wednesday and Friday were clinic days since those are Eric's Oncologist's clinic days. However, since this era of low platelets (since December) I've learned that Monday and Tuesday are also possible. Now I figure only Thursday is untouchable since it's unlikely he'd be scheduled in between his doctor's 2 clinic days. As a consummate, but out of her element, planner, this means loading up Thursdays with everything that requires an appointment because I can't plan for any other day. So I had a dentist appointment, and an appointment with my counsellor, and Joel also had a dentist appointment. Luckily, our Nurse Clinician was able to move someone else and get us into clinic on Friday as planned.
As mentioned above, the plan was to pre-order the blood so it would be ready to go when we arrived in clinic on Friday. Also, before giving blood, a group and screen (blood typing test) is required within 72 hours. Our nurse clinician arranged for one to be drawn before we left on Tuesday calculating that it would still be good when we arrived Friday so we could get started quickly. However, transfusion medicine asked for a new one Friday morning. Then they said they needed a hematopathologist to look at it; so much for planning ahead! An hour after Eric's port was accessed, the group and screen still wasn't complete, but the rest of the bloodwork was back. Turns out his counts had actually held pretty well from Tuesday, but they were still (always) low and so a top up was still a good plan. Eric's doctor ordered platelets after seeing the counts and they were ready before the group and screen, so we started with those instead.
Apparently something weird was showing up on the group and screen. Eric's doctor said that sometimes happens with MDS patients because of the amount of abnormal cells, but we haven't had this problem before. Eric's blood type is A+ and his donor was as well, so there's no reason his blood type should change. Interestingly, his donor doesn't have to be the same blood type; it is HLA factors they match.
Anyhow, eventually the group and screen was finished and was A+ as expected. Our nurse was so fast having the blood in the room just as the platelet flush was finishing. However, it's still a long day with 2 transfusions and we were at the hospital for 5 and a quarter hours. Though the last 5 minutes were for Eric to finish his Lego set! It is a Mandrake from Harry Potter.
Traffic was a bit heavy on the way home; easy on the way there and they seem to be done digging up the parking lot. We made it home for our Friday Family Movie & Pizza night and are ready to start Spring Break!
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