Good or Bad--No In-betweens

Last night about 9:30, Ray got up and after a few minutes he decided he felt well enough to shower. Then he sat in the chair and had some cookies and milk. Trust him to have milk and cookies as soon as he felt like eating.

Right now I'm sitting here in Ray's hospital room listening to one of the 5 IV pumps alarm-a frequent sound since the pump alarms go off whenever an infusion is complete. It's shift change so responding to a call light takes a little longer. I'm counting 7 IVs running right now. It's an art to just figure out what line is going in where.

Ray felt pretty good this morning--even said he did some work on the computer. This afternoon and evening have been a little rough. I guess he's going to be an "all or nothing" type. Either he'll feel good or bad with no in-between.

He proved my theory this evening. He spiked a fever of 104.8. That got the nurses jumping. Soon he was covered in ice bags. The nausea returned. His cough--which had all but disappeared--went out of control and he turned bright red all over. So now, two hours later and thanks to modern medicine, the fever is down to 100.6, the cough has gone, the nausea calmed down, and he has started to relax. Maybe he will get some sleep tonight.

Again, no one can say for sure what is going on. They continue to say this is the rough part of the transplant. At least that means they can't find anything bad going on. They say sometimes patients get fevers when the new cells are en-grafting. That's a good sign. But high fevers are not preferred. Again Ray has given the fever thing his all.

Well, it looks like he finally is getting some sleep. Yea! The other day he told one of the nurses to just put him to sleep and wake him up when it was all over. The nurse said he had heard that before. All in all, Ray's a trooper. His spirits are up most of the time and he's constantly looking for the positive.

We continue to be amazed by the outpouring of love and concern from all. We're grateful for great ward members, good friends, and wonderful families. Our love to you all!

An interesting side light:

Our nurse today said that one of her nursing instructors told them in class a few weeks ago that a lot of the donors have been from Germany. She said she thought there was some kind of government requirement for Germans to join the bone marrow registry. Interesting. Ray already figured, through the little information we received about the donor, that he wasn't from the USA and that he had been in Europe sometime between 1980 and 1996. What if the donor is from Germany and related to Ray? (Ray's grandfather was German and came to America when he was 10) Hmmm............