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Yesterday, Monday, January 7, was a great day! The doctor cleared the way for Gary’s next transplant, which will be Wednesday, January 16.
We (my sisters, Judy and Cheryl, Gary and I) left at 6:45 am. The traffic was unusually light; we made it to the front door of the clinic at 9:45. Three hours is record time for us. Judy was able to find parking on the second floor of the garage. Usually we have to keep going to at least the sixth floor and many times the eighth. The elevator ride was straight through to the 21st floor that never happens. Gary had his blood drawn with in ten minutes of checking in at the front desk. Again, very rare. That left us with an hour before the doctor’s appointment. We left the building and did some walking on Michigan Avenue because it was 60 degrees in Chicago in January! You guessed it, another rare occurrence.
Gary saw the doctor on time and as usual, the doctor was not worried about any of Gary’s previous tests. He felt the possible aneurysm should be looked into later, that the lesion on the spine would probably be corrected with the next chemo (transplant), and the heart issue was insignificant. The doctor set Gary up with a CAT scan to check the possible aneurism for 3pm that day. Just ‘happened’ to be a cancellation. At 1:00 pm, Gary got right in to see the cardiologist. His conclusion was that the 4mm enlargement of one of the heart chambers was probably to the difference of technicians drawing in the lines. Everything else looked and sounded good!
Now it was on to the CAT scan. We were somewhat disappointed but not surprised that Gary was not able to get the scan. His creatinin was too high. The dyes used put stress on the kidneys. At this time, Gary needs to avoid all things hard on the kidneys since the chemo used in the transplant is very stressful to the kidneys. We left the parking garage at 4:15 p.m. with the feeling that the day had turned out exceedingly better than we had hoped.
The traffic was heavier going home. It was raining off and on and there was lighting all around us. Lighting in January! We turned on the radio for a weather report and learned that there had been four tornadoes just to the north of us an hour or so earlier. Tornadoes in January! Anyway, if it were not for the CAT scan delay we would have been driving in some ugly weather. Thankfully, we were safe in the clinic as the nasty weather passed.
Gary and I believe that God is in control everyday but we are so busy doing our usual routine that we fail to notice God. Yesterday was different. Everything that happened left us in awe of how God takes care of all the details.
We have many things to take care of before next Wednesday. This second transplant should not be so hard on Gary this time since his cancer cell count is minuscule compared to the first transplant. As always, we are concerned about the reaction his kidneys will have to the mephalan (chemo drug). Gary will be in the new hospital that Northwest Memorial just opened in October. I will post an address as soon as possible. The doctor told Gary that the rooms are ‘awesome’. He is supposed to have internet access in his room so he should be able to send a few notes. Just do not expect anything during any football game. The room is equipped with a wall mounted, plasma TV. (A treat, since we get only two channels on the TV at our house.)
Pray for drivable weather on the 15th. We will probably drive in the night before and stay at the apartment a few blocks away from the hospital. Also, pray that the drugs will not damage Gary’s kidneys. These are our two main concerns at this time.
-Patty
