On Monday, keith had his port put in. Let me just say that Monday was a day that unless you were with us, I am not sure anyone would believe it.
We had to be at UNC at 8:30 for check up and chat with doc. When we arrived, we both had to use the restroom. I came out first and waited for Keith. When he came out he had a look of horror on his face. Apparently a gentleman didn't quite make it to the bathroom in time. When keith went in he noticed on the floor a pile of clothes and a pile of poop. As bad as that was, when he looked up there was the poor guy NAKED on the counter washing himself off in the sink. Oh, our day gets better.....
So after the 8:30 appointment, we headed to the other end of the hospital to check in to have his surgery. We were way early, but were hoping they would do it early. hahahahahahahahahahahaha. what were we thinking? Anyway, we were ushered from one waiting room to another one down the hall. After sitting there for about an hour or so, a lady came in with an older lady that was in a wheelchair and on oxygen. They were chatting and you could tell it was polite conversation, one that you would have with someone you didn't know very well. All of a sudden the lady said, OH MY GOD! I NEED HELP! Apparently the older lady said she felt dizzy, then her head slumped and then she began to snore loudly (not like you were sleeping, but like you were dying)
Good grief. Doctors and nurses came from everywhere. Then they called code blue.
After quite a while, I heard that they shocked her and got her back. Lesson 1: If you are thinking of dying, try to do it in the cardiac testing area of a well known hospital. that's your best shot of making it.
Sooo, after more waiting, they finally came to get keith. His surgery was scheduled for 2pm. While we were waiting, a patient walked by and was stopped by a nurse. Apparently, he was splattering blood all over the floor from whatever procedure he had. They had to call a stretcher for him.
They finally took keith back at 4. Unfortunately this caused us to miss ben's kindergarden open house, but luckily I have a wonderful sister who was able to take him and send me pictures. Broke my heart, but at least a lady didn't die, so I'm ok with that.
Today we took Keith to have his first chemo treatment. This went a little smoother. No naked men and no one tried to die in front of us. Nurses were cool and quite funny. Keith of course pulled jokes on them all day. They set us up in a private room with lots of windows, a tv and they even brought me a recliner! Had lunch with my best buddy Delia who just happens to work at the hospital! She has been an angel.
So, Keith goes back tomorrow for another 6 hour day, but at least he will be comfortable. He is feeling pretty good, little tired and little icky, but other than that, he is great. Thanks for all your prayers and support. Starting Thursday, he will have to wear a mask if he goes around a lot of people and when he goes in and out of the hospital. His blood counts should be dropping next week, so he will probably be more tired and have to be even more careful of germs. He will be going back to UNC twice next week to have bloodwork to make sure he doesn't need blood or platelet transfusions. Hopefully he won't, but it wouldn't surprise us!
He will start taking shots to boost his white blood cells Thursday, this will be twice daily for about 2 weeks, then he will go in to have his stem cells "extracted". This may take a few days (outpatient), then we wait for a bed to open. Praying that this will be sooner than later! It could take 3-4 weeks! Hopefully not, but we will do what we have to do. God has it all figured out. HE is probably snickering at our plan.
Thanks to everyone for continuing to pray and for support. Ben is starting kindergarden next week, so hopefully this won't weigh on his mind too much. Trying not to stress too much, but I do worry about the children, they just don't understand and poor ben was so close to my mom, I know he worries his dad will meet the same fate.
I will update when things start moving forward or if anything exciting happens. I'm sure it will!
