My Meds
When they give you Ara-C (Cytarabine), they give you Zofran (antinausea) and a steroid at the hospital. And they start you on Prenisolone eye drops, because the Ara-C comes out in your tears.
Then they send you home with:
Steroid Eye Drops - prevents inflammation as chemo comes out in tears
Nulasta - 1 shot to boost good white blood (but not those of lymphoma)
Claritin - reduces/prevents pain of white blood cell production pressing outward from inside marrow
Colace - working to end constipation caused by anti-nausea
Acyclovir - (anti-viral) now particularly important to prevent old chicken pox from coming back as shingles as my white blood count drops (which test show, it has)
Vaccinating the Herd
Also this morning, the kids are off to the family doctor to have their first vaccinations. This was always a potential source of marital tension between me (generally pro-vax, but infant-vax skeptical) and Mrs Blogger (who always took the anti-vax posture in our discussions) which we "solved" by postponing indefinitely.
We're actually negotiating with the BIDMC's Infection Control office, since the kids are not infants, not adults, not going to camp, not college students, not themselves sick or immuno-compromised, and not medical professionals, they're actually in a strange lacuna* of the recommendations, where they have aspects of each but are not quite perfectly in any category.
BIDMC cares because they've got a whole isolation ward (7 Feldberg, where I was this past weekend) with people with basically no immune systems, so the rules are:
1) No children under 12 during flu season, regardless of immunization status
2) No visitors over 12 unless immunized
3) No visitors who've had a live flu vaccine within 2 weeks of vaccination
Everyone pretty much agrees the kids now need to be immunized against "the contagions"
MMR
DTaP (for the P)
Varicella (Chicken Pox)
Seasonal Flu
And maybe
HiB (bacterial flu)...though health workers are not required to have this
Pneumococcal (bacterial pneumonia)...though health workers are not required to have this
simply because these are possible threats both in the ward and later while I'd be recovering at home
But probably not these, even though they are required of health workers:
Meningicoccal (more for college, camp, & microbiologists)
Hep B (blood/needle transmission is not what we're worried about)
And probably not
Polio (rare in US; not worth a fight over either way)
Rotavirus (max age is 8 months, so we're way past that)
Hep A (rare in US; not worth a fight over either way)
And certainly not
HPV
Notes on 7 Feldberg (the lymphoma/leukemia/stem cell ward)
Along one side (with the best views of Boston) are the isolation rooms for people who are:
1) Neutropenic (super low immune system, for whatever reason)
2) Autologous Stem Cell (low immune, but at least it is your own)
3) Allogenic Stem Cell (low immune, risking rejection/fights with a transplanted immune system)
These rooms have
1) A sign on the door explaining the condition of the person inside (see above)
2) Any additional warnings (e.g. "no food by mouth")
3) An air-lock style entry. An outer door with a change/wash anteroom and then the inner room
Basically a visitor to the rooms above must:
1) Enter an outer unsecured door (to the whole ward); no kids or flowers beyond this point; There is a "family room" for visitors who do not meet the criteria of the inner ward door.
2) Get cleared through a secured inner ward door
3) Check in at reception nurse
4) lock all personal belongings in a locker in "the solarium"
5) re-vest (not sure on this)
6) enter outer individual door to personal room's airlock
7) do something clean
8) enter the individual room
This past weekend, in the semi-private rooms that flank the Solarium (#4) my visitors were only subject to 1 thru 3.
* a perfect use of the word "lacuna" (Latin for lagoon, meaning "unfilled space or interval; a gap." ) if there ever was one.
4 comments:
I can't believe you have not renamed those drugs! ; )
You can do better than that colon-based name, I'm sure.
Surprised at the stance on vaccinations of Mrs. Blogger, particularly because postponing indefinitely puts Mrs. Blogger into the win category or your views into loss until now. Had not your illness come up, the possibilities of real and last damage to the cohert of contacts of your offspring (and them) are daunting. As for the "certainly not" category, I could not confidently suppose that hopes/expectations and realities always align. It's hard, but consider the mostly unimaginable circumstance of involuntary exposure (let's suppose horrific circumstance), would not 1 less thing to worry about be worth it? Said differently, one can control one's own decisions, but not the decisions of others that may create damage to you. This is largely outside the need for your immediate circumstances, and perhaps there are risks that you know better, but protection for the young ones, who don't get a say, seems the highest priority. Hoping none of these issues ever become real problems.
Stress is also very bad for the immune system.
Yep, choose your battles and all that. Oddly, to reduce stress I iron. I must pay just enough attention to feel occupied, the goal is simple, the process straightforward, and the outcome obvious. No, pressed clothes are not important, but productivity in small ways has an oddly calming effect.
I hope you (and family!) enjoy reduced stress and health in every aspect.
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