This is Alex writing for Andy. He is asleep and resting well. He has completed 6 days straight of chemo, what we hope will be his LAST CHEMO ever!! Tomorrow he will get his stem cell transplant over a 4 hour process. He is currently neutropenic (severely immune compromised) which is part of the treatment, and his levels are suppose to continue to drop over the next week until the stem cells "en graph". Basic en-graphment means they find their way to the bone marrow and start to reproduce.
This chemo has been pretty rough on Andy, but you would never know it by his smile and great attitude. You see, Andy has sort of been this positive force up here on the oncology transplant floor. His charisma and good vides sorda rubs off on the nurses, the other patients and even his doctor! There have been plenty of days of nausea and body aches, and there will be many more in the days ahead as chemo tends to be like "the gift that keeps on giving"....even though it is out of your system, the effects are compounding and continue to effect you days/weeks later. Even with the yucky effects of chemo, Andy still gets out of bed and walks around the hospital in his mask toting around his IV pump (which we have named Big Bertha since she has 3 separate pumps).
Andy has been blessed with many visitors this week. His mom and dad drove in from Georgia before he checked in last week, and both of his sisters, Liz and Sarah, flew in Thursday and showered him with love until they had to leave today. Other visitors to include fellow co-workers, aunts and uncles and a dear golfing buddy Petie, all of which have reminded Andy how loved he is! This type of support really helps a man like Andy pass the time being cooped up in a hospital for 3 weeks and feeling like he has been hit by a truck in the process!
Since I have been staying with Andy the whole time during his treatment I have really gotten to know many of the other patients on the floor. The entire 11th floor where Andy is staying is dedicated to only transplant patients being treated for blood cancers. There is a 32 year old girl named Kiki who is battling leukemia and has as spunky an attitude as Andy! Then there is the 3 year old little boy who's leukemia has relapsed and is here being re-treated. He has stolen everyone's hearts and is certainly the star of the transplant floor. In the room next to us is a 55+ year old man who underwent an Allogenic (from a donor) stem cell transplant and is suffering from Graph vs Hosts Disease. His wife is such a sweet woman who comes to see him every day after working her full time job. Oh yeah and the other 60+ year old man who has been battling lymphoma for over 8 years and is here undergoing an autologous transplant. He has has no family in town to come visit or to be by his bedside, which he conveniently mentioned to me in passing tonight while heating up soup for Andy. Andy and I will stop by tomorrow if able to visit him and make a cognitive effort to let him know we support him! It really puts everything in perspective! Andy is so blessed to have such a wonderful and loving family who has been through this all 8 years with his. There is always someone else wit
h their own plight which is often times just as hard if not harder than your own. Remember that!
Cheers,
Alex
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