Hi everyone,
Robbie here, posting for Cathi. I'm heading back to Vermont later today but have enjoyed hanging with Cathi in 4102 in the ol' KUMC BMT. She's doing pretty well and is anticipating going home tomorrow or Thursday. Dr. Abhyankar ordered another neupogen booster shot for today to kick those white blood cells into gear, the first one since Thursday. Cathi's making progress with eating and has two meals down today so far. She's still using Ativan (an anti-throwing-up drug) to keep things settled but no womiting so far today. We're heading out soon to walk a few laps around the unit.
I'm getting this hospital figured out, and my routines here. Because it takes several minutes to enter the unit (push wall button to open first set of double doors, wash hands thoroughly for 15 seconds, dry hands, sign in, pick up the phone to request second doors opening, wait for doors to open, enter unit) I try to group things together. I go down the stairs, get the newspaper, peruse the options in the cafeteria and plan lunch; see if there's anything new in the gift shop; climb the stairs back up to the 4th floor, stop by the Resource Room to see if there's anything new and to heat up a cup of water for tea; then go through the process of entering the unit again.
The unit is very well staffed - plenty of nurses and aides. When Cathi pushes the button asking for help, response time is excellent. Of course, she knows them all and they all know her. The nurses in particular are caring and seem to be on top of her needs. It's a small unit - only 12 rooms. Transplant patients are usually admitted for a four-week stay so they often bring their own TVs, DVD players and other things from home to make their stay easier. When we were walking laps yesterday we saw a darkened room lit with several candles (or those battery tea light things that look like candles - I can't imagine that real candles would be allowed). Of course, Cathi has her purple-jacketed dancing Elvis clock on the wall of her room, thanks to Mark who brought it from her home. Each to her own!