Day 1 of Round 3 chemotherapy finished

Family and Friends,

Day 1 of Bob's chemotherapy is finished and I must say that Bob is in good spirits. His counts before chemotherapy started were higher than they had ever been, 335,000 for platelets and hemoglobin at 11, his white count was in normal range as well. Bob has had no fevers in the past week, but has suffered from a screwed up internal temperature system. He's got the thermostat set at 65, and yet he's sweating through all his clothing. The doctor said it could be a side effect from the chemo, but as long as he's not showing a temperature everything is okay. They tested him again last night for MRSA in his neck area. I'm assuming it's going to come back positive again. Other than that, Bob's in good spirits and the doctor said as long as things go well, they can get him out of the hospital as early as Saturday which would be great!

Please continue to keep Bob in your thoughts and prayers.
Love and thanks,
Michele

Bob heading back for round 3 of 5

Family and friends,

Bob is doing pretty good. He was happy to see his friends Mike and Ed yesterday who came from NYC and Ft. Meyers to see him. We had lunch and Bob got to do some catching up. This morning we went back to the hospital for antibiotic infusions and then over to my parents for lunch. Now we are hanging out with Christopher and hanging Halloween decorations.

Please keep Bob in your thoughts and prayers as he heads back in to the hospital.

Love and thanks,
Michele
Ps Bob wanted me to say hi to everyone for him


-- Posted from my iPhone

Bob coming home today

Family and friends,

They kept Bob an extra day yesterday because they wanted to load him up with blood, magnesium, and potassium IVs so he wouldn't have to get any more this week. They are saving his IV lines for the antibiotics for the MRSA. I changed the dressing on his tracheostomy site last night and it's still infected. I'm hoping once he gets home it will get better.

As most of you know I bought Bob a blackberry so that he could keep up with his emails while he was in the hospital. He didn't like the way the internet connection was (so he said, I think he was jealous that both Dave and I had iPhones) and now he wants one. So I bought him an iPhone today. He won't get it until I get off work, but I think he's going to be happy with it.

Please keep Bob in your thoughts and prayers. He goes back into the hospital on September 31 for the 2nd round of consolidation chemotherapy.

Love and thanks,
Michele

Bob might be going home Monday!

Family and friends,

After a couple of days with no fever and increasing white cell counts (thanks to nuprogen injections) the oncologist said that as long as Bob would be willing to go home with a picc line and get IV antibiotics everyday for the MRSA they might let him go home tomorrow. Needless to say he was very happy to hear the news. Christopher stopped by to see him which made him happy too. Although Bob is tired he is in good spirits. Please continue to keep him in your prayers and thoughts.

Love and thanks,
Michele


-- Posted from my iPhone

Bob feeling better...

Family and friends

Happy to report that bob is feeling much better today. No nausea, vomiting, or fevers! Also the doctor decided to put Bob's blood on standby (genious idea) and when he needed blood yesterday, he got it in 15 minutes. It's funny how effective a squeeky wheel is!

Bob is much happier being back on dilaudid, rather than morphine. The doctor also said bob has MRSA in his neck and backside. They had him on vancomycin, but had to change it due to him having hearing issues. Bobs appetite is back, so I know he's getting better and he's checking his emails too.

Lots of love and thanks,
Michele


-- Posted from my iPhone

Infection at tracheostomy site in neck

Family and friends,

Tonight was a rough night for Bob. He spent the night neaseous and throwing up every hour (even though he didn't eat anything all day). We think it might be from switching from the dilaudid to morphine. The nurse had to give him ambien just so he could get some sleep.

When we woke up this morning the nurse came in and hung a precaution sign on Bobs door saying everyone who comes in has to wear mask, gloves, and blue gown. She said he has some type of infection at the wound site in his neck. It takes 3 days or so to figure out exactly what he has because they grow it in a pietri dish so we are still waiting. Bob is tired sore and miserable. He is NOT checking his email or texts or phone calls.

Please keep Bob in your thoughts and prayers.

Love and thanks,
Michele


-- Posted from my iPhone

24 hrs later, we got platlets. No blood yet

Family and friends,

After writing the blog last night I went out and spoke to the charge nurse about getting Bob some ice packs. She was nasty to me and told me to sit in the room and wait for the nurse. I was so mad I was beside myself. I called the nursing supervisor over the whole hospital and complained. 2 minutes later my ice packs magically arrived. 10 minutes after that, so did the cooling blanket. The dumb nurse set the blanket on 45 degrees and after 10 minutes bob had enough. He said he'd rather die than freeze like that. I tried to explain that I could increase the temp to 98.6 like they did in the ICU but it was too late. There was no convincing him. I just had to take it off. He used ice the rest of the night. Although Bob had a fever throughout the night the nurse didn't bother to give him Tylenol until 7am. I had to call down to the bloodbank to give them hell at 6 to find out where the blood was. It was here but no one seemed to be in a rush to bring it up. Bob got the platlets at 10. And were now waiting on the red blood. Bobs temp is still at 102. He's packed in ice, he is neaseus and refuses to eat. I talked him into one jello and a Gatorade. The infectious disease doc came in and we told him about the MRI debacle and he said they'd do a CT instead. When Bob realized he had to drink contrast dye, he refused. That's been our day thus far.

Please keep Bob in your thoughts and prayers.

Love and thanks,
Michele
Ps. They put Bob on a morphine PCA pump not dilaudid. And he's getting 1mg every 8 minutes.

Fourteen hours later and NO BLOOD STILL

Family and friends

It's almost 11pm and to say today has been frustrating would be a severe understatement. Bobs oncologist came in around 8:30am and ordered blood and platlets for Bob. We are still waiting on them. If you have been following this blog from the beginning you'd know this has been an issue before. Bethesda contracts with the big red bus which is community bloodcenters out of Orlando. They are waiting for blood to get here from there. Although my girlfriend is the director of the rival blood bank of south Florida and has previously told me whatever blood bob needed they would send it over in a matter of minutes, Bethesda hospital has refused. Time and time again have I asked. 11pm and still no blood. In addition Bob has now spiked a fever of 103. The nurse told me she ordered him a cooling blanket. That was an hour and a half ago. I have swiped some ice from the supply room and have stuffed rubber gloves with them and put them under Bob's arms to try to lower his fever. Tonight's nurse is USELESS.

Here's the icing on today's cake. They came to get Bob for an MRI. He wanted me to go with him. As the transporter wheeled Bob out of the room they were wheeling a person out of the room two doors down in a body bag down to the morgue. We had to wait next to the body bag while we took the elevator to the basement. I asked Bob if he was ok, he said yes, but it freaked me out. The MRI was one of the closed ones that's tight as a coffin with no room to breathe. As soon as they pushed Bob in he freaked out. He couldn't do it and I couldn't blame him after what he saw. Not to mention he had a fever, was in pain and was exhausted.

That was our day.

The only bright spot for Bob was that they gave him a pain pump that he could push every eight minutes and it would give him 1 mg of dilaudid. Now he was previously getting 2 mg if dilaudid every 2 hours. I'm no mathematician, but that's like 15 mg of dilaudid every two hours if he presses it every eight minutes which he's been doing. The nurse assured me when I pointed this out to her that the pain pump distributes the medication differently than an injection, but I think she's an idiot and I don't believe her. I'm exhausted and have had it up to here tonight. I'm going to raise some hell about getting Bob some proper ice packs.

Bob needs lots of prayers tonight, and I need a stiff drink...

Love and thanks,
Michele


-- Posted from my iPhone

Bob back on cancer wing, will be here awhile

Family and friends

Last night they admitted Bob back to the cancer wing. They gave him blood, platlets, and antibiotics throughout the night. Unfortunately when the oncologist came to visit this morning none of his counts had come up. He still has a fever albeit a low grade one. We had a consult from the infectious disease doctor as well. He is taking cultures of his tracheostomy site as well as his bed sore site to see if they are infected and are getting him an MRI to see if the bed sore wound got deep enough to infect bone in his back. In addition they have to put a picc line in but his platlets are still too low so they stuck poor Bob a million times for IVs and blood. He neausous, tired, and in lots of pain.

Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

Love and thanks,
Michele


-- Posted from my iPhone

Bob taken to emergency room

Family and friends,

When I got home from work today I went to pick Bob up from his parents house. When I got there he was complaining he was nauseous. We took his temperature and it was 101. I called his oncologist and she wanted us to immediately bring him into the ER. She said because he's on antibiotics he shouldn't be getting a fever and if he is that it can't be good. We are sitting in the ER room right now, they've done a million blood tests and so far his platlets are at 20,000 (normal is between 150k-450k) and his white count is at .3 we are awaiting the rest of the tests. In the meanwhile they have him a chest xray, IV fluids and gave him vancomycin. I'm very worried about Bob and will stay with him as long as it takes


until they get him stable. Please keep Bob in your thoughts and prayers tonight. He's going to need it.

Love and thanks,
Michele


-- Posted from my iPhone

Bob's blood dropping again

Family and friends,

This morning Bob went to his oncologist. Over the weekend his platlets dropped to 8,000 and his hemoglobin to 6.5. The doctor gave Bob the option of being readmitted to the hospital or go in on an outpatient basis for transfusions today. Needless to say he chose outpatient and I dropped him off at Bethesda at 9am. It's 6pm now and he's still at it. They gave him 2 red blood transfusions, 2 platlets, and a magnesium IV. He is tired but in good spirits. The doctor said he will need chemo up until December so we won't be having our welcome home/engagement party until January it looks like.

Please keep Bob in your thoughts and prayers.

Love and thanks,
Michele


-- Posted from my iPhone

Bob's platelets dropped to 8,000 - transfusion needed

Family and friends,

Bob has been out of the hospital for the last 4 days. He has been doing good at home and spending the afternoons at his parent's house. It gives him the opportunity to see Christopher and eat his Mom's famous "macaroni and tuna fish" that he eats by the truckloads! He went to see the oncologist today and they said his platelets have dropped dramatically to 8,000. He is back at Bethesda now having a platlet transfusion on an outpatient basis. I am very concerned that he may become neutropenic over the next few days and he will have to start wearing a mask so as to not get any infections.

He has 2 wounds still, the trachesotomy in his throat as well as the stage 3 bed sore wound that he is dealing with. I have gotten pretty good at taking care of these wounds but we have an appointment with a wound care center tomorrow so that I can get proper training in dressing them for him.

Bob wanted me to tell everyone thank you for all the help and support he has gotten. I will follow up tomorrow and let you know how he's doing.

Love and thanks,
Michele

The eagle has landed.... Bob is HOME!!!!!

Family and friends,

It is with great joy that I can finally say that Bob is home!! He got home late last night, I made the couch up for him today and he is getting around with a cane in the house. Christopher stopped by to visit today for about an hour and he and I played while Bob watched. The smile that came across Bob's face was priceless. It is a time for happiness and celebration today.

Bob's counts are still low and according to the doctor may be dropping still so he may have to go into the hospital on an outpatient basis for a blood transfusion every couple of days. Tomorrow I am going to go back to work and Bob is going to spend the day with his parents.

I cannot even begin to thank everyone for all the love and support you have provided Bob and I over the past 70 something days. Bob still has 2 more rounds of Chemotherapy to go over the next two months. I will be still keeping up this blog daily as his progress continues, so please keep reading!! He still has a long road to recovery.

Love and thanks,
Michele

Bob possibly coming home MONDAY!!!

Family and friends,

I don't want to jinx it, but the doctor said that if Bob can show that he's not actively bleeding and it's safe for him, she's going to let him go home on Monday!! His counts dropped a little bit today, but that was to be expected. He's having a lot of joint pain and has his last day of chemo today. Please wish him well!

Bob's friend Dave left us today to go back to Ohio. He was such a help to me during this week, watching Bob while I worked. I cannot thank him enough!

Please keep Bob in your thoughts and prayers and I'll update his progress over the weekend. Have a fun and safe Labor day!!

Love and thanks,
Michele

Spinal Tap today... not the movie either...

Family and friends,

Bob has finished his second day of chemotherapy and has one more day to go. This morning the Chief of Surgery came into his room and wanted to put a scope up his nose and down into his throat to see the reason that Bob hasn't been able to speak as well as he should. (He still sounds very hoarse and like Darth Vader) Bob refused the scope and I chased after the surgeon and asked if he could come back next week. He said he would try.

I think Bob was just a bit overloaded this morning because his oncologist told him she wanted to do a spinal tap on him today to see if the Leukemia has gotten into his spinal cord and brain. I've seen this procedure done on TV and it look like it hurts like hell. I'll give an update once this happens.

Bob's friend Dave who has been staying with Bob this week has started a "Lift Strong" line of apparel and merchandise which just launched on his website September 1. All proceeds from the sale of this gear go towards the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Bob is not the only person who has been affected by this disease in the powerlifting community and it is amazing when a group of committed individuals get together for a common goal the things they can accomplish. If you are interested in any of the merchandise or reading about other cancer survivors affected by this, I encourage you to check out Dave's posts at http://www.elitefts.com/documents/liftstrong09.htm
the link for the apparel is : www.Elitefts.com/liftstrong

Thanks again to everyone for their prayers and words of encouragement for Bob. He really appreciates it.

Love and thanks,
Michele

Day 1 of Chemotherapy has started

Family and friends,

Bob's doctor started him on chemotherapy last night at 6pm. He receives it via IV and it takes a few hours to get through. He got his second bag of chemo this morning at 6am. He is a bit nauseous but doing okay. He will get his next round at 6pm on Wednesday night. He seems very mobile and is trying to keep his weight up. Yesterday they weighed him and he was 198. (that's up about 15 pounds from a few weeks ago). Dave is here and is taking great care of him during the day.

I'd like to especially thank Traci Tate today. With her kids starting school and running two businesses, the fact that she can sacrifice her husband for a week to take care of Bob while I work is incredible. I am truly grateful and appreciative.

Please keep Bob in your thoughts and prayers.
Love and thanks,
Michele