Yesterday was a bad day for Rob, he came in here at 8AM like we have been doing all week and the doctor came into see him and looked at his line, and put him back on the second antibiotic. We don't know if he had a reaction to the drug or if he would have had a fever anyway. His fever has gone as high as 40.2 (104.36). The swelling in his line has gone down now. They are trying to save the CVC line because they need it to take his stem cells out. The CVC line is in a large vein that can handle the high volume of blood going out and in at the same time. This morning Rob woke up to some guy pacing back and forth with his IV line and Rob said to him I think you need to leave, and the guy goes why I was just looking out the window and Rob said GET out, lol!! then as if that wasn't enough, Rob got up to shower this morning and came out of the bathroom and there were 3 people standing there waiting for him, apparently they had the wrong room. Good thing he came out dressed. Rob told the nurse so she put a name tag on his door and said that should help as long as people stop and look at the name on the door, lol! Robs counts for today White blood cells .7 just a reminder the normal is 4-11 this is right on schedule they are happy with this number tomorrow we should see 2.0 or 3.0 Red blood cells are 105 normal is 137-180 this is down from yesterday and is normal since he had a fever Platelets are 15 normal is 150-400 Yesterday we had a little scare with oxygen. Last time Rob was on chemo the doctor said don't go scuba diving and don't go on oxygen. The reason is one of the drugs he was on last time affects the lungs and oxygen is actually poison to the lungs. Rob reminded me as he was on it and had been for about an hour that he wasn't supposed to be, so I took off to the nurses station and was tying to spit it out but it wasn't coming I was trying to stay calm. I finally got it out and she came and took him off of it and checked his oxygen levels and he was maintaining a 93 on his own normally he is 97 and they like to put you on oxygen below 90 he was at 87 when they put him on. Another scare yesterday Rob was really dizzy which is not normal so they took blood cultures to see if that would tell us why, we wont find out till Monday. Also another thing we have been wondering about since the beginning was Robs blood type and he is A+. All this awareness about blood type is making me think more and more everyday that I should go and donate my blood. I am O- anyone can receive my blood. Rob is doing ok today, nothing really on the schedule today I am going to try and get him to go for a walk because it is so nice outside, but if he is not up for it then maybe tomorrow. Today I am going to take a moment for me I will probably feel guilty the whole time but I am doing it anyway. I am going to get a pedicure then go for supper with my boys.

Yesterday after I posted I was asked by Tina is it normal for the platelets to go down the next day after it went up the day before? I wasn't sure so I asked the doctor and she said that platelets have a life span. That is so cool, I thought it was like a blood transfusion where the blood just stays with you. Rob is having problems with his CVC line, his body is trying to get it out. The doctor wants to put him back on the second antibiotic. The room Rob is in today in the hospital is so small, it is about the size of a queen size bed, lol I am not even joking. He has to stay in the hospital now until his line is better or until his counts come up. He can go home till 11PM then he has to sleep here for the night, he says lay here for the night. He doesn't get much sleep when he is here. He is so irritated that he has to stay the night at the hospital, I feel so bad for him. White blood cells are 0.2 Red blood cells are 116 Platelets are 15 Everything went up so his body is responding to the injections so that is a good thing. They were going to put him on double shots today but because it went up they want to see what it will come up to tomorrow. Robs weight for today is 204 pounds he is doing so awesome with that. I should have said this before but Rob is doing really well. He stays outside with the boys, he dismantled a bbq and threw it out, he washed the bus and jeep with the pressure washer. He is such a fighter I am so proud of him.

I think I forgot to mention that Rob had low potassium, I did not know this but it is an electrolyte. It helps your muscles, I remember when I was pregnant and I kept getting charlies because I was low in potassium. They said he is borderline low, the reason they need to keep it up is your heart is a muscle and if it doesn't have the potassium it needs then you could be at risk of a heart attack. I said what about eating a banana and the nurse said yes but it is too low at this point, he would have to eat too many bananas. His potassium is up to 3.5 now, so he is good the normal level is 3.3 to 5.1. His White .1, Red is 111 and platelets went down to 13. We went the apheresis interview today and they showed us the machine that they will be hooking Rob up to. It takes 200ml of blood to fill the machine. There is a constant flow of blood going out and blood going in. It filters 4 litres of blood every hour. When the blood is in the machine there is a centrifuge that spins and will collect the stem cells. It is able to do this because the stem cells are a different density than the other cells. They will be at the top and the machine will skim them off the top. When they have enough stem cells which is billions then they will remove him from the machine. He will most likely be on it all day. He is not allowed to move away from the machine or be unhooked from it. This process can make you low on calcium so they run calcium in the return blood line. If you have to low of calcium your lips and tongue can get tingly and if you have too much calcium then you can get a little hot. I was listening to the radio this morning and they said that the tsunami warning in Japan was lifted after a 7.4 earthquake hit them. The DJ on the radio then said I am so thankful to be living in the beautiful country, and for a moment I thought to myself yeah right walk in my shoes, then I stopped feeling sorry for myself and said yes I am thankful for this beautiful country as well. In Japan if the earthquake brought disaster to your life it probably brought disaster to your family as well, and they wouldn't be able to help you until they helped themselves. We have family that is able to help us. We have awesome health care. Rob started losing his hair yesterday, even his eyebrow hair.

Rob started his injections to boost his stem cells today. The nurse taught me how to do it because when his white cell count comes up he can stop the antibiotics and he wont have to go to the hospital everyday, which means they will give us the needle and I will do it at home. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I went on a 45 degree angle and the needle is really short so it stops just beneath under his skin. It goes in his stomach and the nurse said there isn't really anything there that I could hit. Rob said the last time he had them he could always feel it and it was uncomfortable, this time he didn't really feel it.
Rob's white blood count is .1 and his red is 119, and his platelets went up to 20. His weight went up to 236.6.
A couple of days ago I had to go to totem to get something to fix the bathroom sink with. When I got there I was explaining to the guy what I needed and he didn't really see how that would fix the problem so I said to him "It's ok my husband knows what he needs to fix the problem, he's just not allowed to leave the house", lol sometimes I should stop and think before talking but realized it was to late so why not have some fun, the guy was looking at me funny and so I said "I have him on a tight leash", lol!! I couldn't keep a straight face, because his chin hit the floor and he looked away, and was probably thinking I am going to stay away from that conversation, lol then I told him that it was because he didn't have an immune system. Lol!! it was fun but I will be more careful next time.

Rob came back to the hospital this morning at 8AM and me and the boys did the school run, went home and got the Jeep and came back to the hospital. Rob had to get a platelet transfusion, his platelets were at 11 and they want to keep them above 10. The bag was orange it was so weired, I thought it was going to be a blood transfusion but it is just platelets. His white blood cells stayed the same at .2 and his weight is 235.7. Last night went well with the pump at home I had to take a syringe and put it in his lumen (one of the 3 lines hanging from his CVC) and pull it back till I see blood, to make sure that it is still in a vein and then I flush it again. Then I hook up the antibiotics and they run for 30 min, then I flush again with saline and flush with Heparin so his blood doesn't clot in the line, when I do this step I have to clamp his line closed as I am pushing so it creates a negative pressure in the line. Rob gets to go home early today with 3 doses of antibiotics that I will hook have to hook up. Rob ate really well at home yesterday, apparently it is just the food here that got to him and why he doesn't eat here. Rob will start his injections tomorrow, they are going to teach me how to do them. I am a little nervous but I think I will be ok. I was thinking yesterday how I like to know the reason behind the step, it is a good thing and a bad thing. If I know why and how then I don't miss a step, for example clamping the line closed when putting the heparin to create a negative pressure, now I wont forget that step. What bothers me the most about it all is where did Rob get the lymphoma from. I know no one has the answer and we will probably never know.

Rob is not allowed to have flowers because they have little bugs in them, or plants for the same reason. He is not allowed to have latex balloons either, because so many people are allergic to latex. I should have said this awhile back but I was a little embarrassed, because they said he could have balloons but they meant the tinfoil ones not the regular balloons. I went and bought a bouquet of balloons, it was so cute too my mom, the Rabbits, Seth, Tyler and myself all signed a balloon. Seth's was a baby lion, that he did. Tyler did a really big flower, my mom helped him. And mine said in sickness and in health I do. Robs counts for today are White blood cells .2 awesome they went up on their own. He will still have to have the injections starting Thursday. Red blood cells are 115. and platelets are 14. They will do a blood transfusion under 10. I am a universal donor but they wont let me give in directly because it has to go through a whole screening and filtering process, and is monitored by the blood bank. I am going to start tracking his weight on here as well. Today is 233.5 pounds. Just a brief history on weight, 2 weeks before he was admitted to the hospital a really nasty flu went around our house and he lost about 20 pounds. So he came to the hospital at 246.9 pounds. So a total weight loss of 13.4 pounds, we think that is pretty good. The dietitian said he should be eating 3,000 calories a day so today he has about 400 calories. Rob gets to go home for the night, he has to return tomorrow at 8AM. They are sending us home with a pump and 2 doses of antibiotics, they have to be refrigerated and every 3rd dose they have to check the enzymes in his liver to make sure it is not damaging it. I will have to hook up the antibiotics to his IV line, and flush his lines, there is 10ml of saline and then 5ml of Heparin, it is to make it so that the blood in his line doesn't clot. I will have to do that at 8PM and 2AM, they both run for 30 min, and then have to be flushed after as well. Rob said that it tastes awful, like a metallic taste, it is hard to describe I just know what he means because of the last treatment he went through I could smell it on his breath.

Rob is still in the hospital we were hoping he would be able to go on a pass until Thursday but he is on 2 different antibiotics that both run at 1AM. The pump they would send us home with can only handle one line at a time. Hopefully tomorrow the tests will come back negative and he can go home till Thursday, when the injection to boost his stem cells start. His white blood cells remained at .1 and his platelets dropped to 21. This is normal, when he receives his injections starting Thursday, they will bring up his stem cell count and that will bring up all his counts. Rob is doing really well. We just went for a walk outside and when we came back to the room he said he was tired and now he is having a nap. I would like to say I know that you may not like everything you read on here but I wish there was more awareness of stem cell transplant and living with Cancer. When someone says I know someone who had cancer, the front of your brain says wow that is terrible I am sorry, but the back of your mind doesn't allow you to think about it because you don't know anything about it. Even still we are learning different things about stem cell transplant, even after reading the big booklet they gave us on the procedure. I would like to take a moment to say Thank you to Melanie for your comments on a previous post. The best response when someone is going through cancer treatment or someone standing beside, is you are doing a great job, you made the right choice. You may not know this, people living with cancer have the option not to take treatment, and sometimes you question was this the right choice, and yes it absolutely was. Another thing you could say other than sorry is stay strong, you guys can make it through this. I know everything is for a season, except maybe winter 2011 in Calgary. It hasn't stopped, lol!