Don: It is 6:20am on Wednesday. Karen’s counts have gone up again. Today they are 1215! Finally we are recovering. It took longer this time and we had a couple of extra bumps but we are getting to the other side of this treatment. No fever last night or this morning. She had an accompanying headache with the fevers before. The headache is still there though and we will be getting something for that. They had done a CT of the head a couple days ago when the first headache showed up. Nothing there. I mean no bleeding or blood clots.

Don: Karen is doing much better today. It is 6:30pm Shands time and she has been sleeping most all afternoon. She woke up and ate a little dinner and promptly went back to sleep. We were up very late last night though and there is not much to do when you are stuck in a room in the hospital so I am not concerned about the long nap. She has not needed much medicine througout the day today. Now let’s just see how the night goes.

They did finally about an hour ago that the CT scan of the sinuses was was negative. The chest did show a little something but it did not appear to be anything to be worried about at this point. With her counts being 846 (we like to reach at least 500) up from 220 yesterday, the plan is to just wait and see how the night and day goes tomorrow. If she has fevers again they will call in some pulmanary doctors to examine her. If she does OK then I get the impression that they believe her body will take care of what was minor on the scan.

The nurse just came in and told me that Karen’s plateletts stayed at 63 today and that her white cells went from 1.8 this morning to 2.9 this afternoon. Both reports are what we needed to hear. You get blessings when you need them.

Don: Karen is a real trooper. This is day 4 of fevers and day 10 in the hospital when she should have been out relaxing at the camper and back in Panama City. She knows that this is the best place to be for her safety. This morning she had a temp of about 103.6 and feels a little congested. They will be coming to take her for a CT of both the chest and sinuses soon. The fever is completely gone now. It is 11:00am on Tuesday.

Don (rambles): We have had all types of nurses in our 5 months at Shands. Men ones, lady ones, big ones and small ones. Wait that sounds like something Dr. Suess would say. They do certainly come in a wide variety when it comes to their phyical descriptions but that isn’t really what I meant.

We have been blessed with mostly high quality and caring nurses. Today’s nurse is one of the top ones we have encountered. Karen woke up with a 39.7c temp today. That is higher than you want to have. It is about 103.6f. Normal is 37.0c/98.6f. This is the second highest temp she has had in the last 4 days of fevers.

When Karen woke with that temp today it was while they had just done a shift change. We called for our nurse, requesting medication, but the word did not get passed to her. When she made her first visit to our room and was told how Karen felt and what her temp was, the nurse really listened and started making things happen. Let me assure you that is not always the reaction patients get from their nurse. It is two hours later and Karen is resting. We thank God for the blessing of this nurse being our nurse today and pray that all nurses know how much they are depended on to give 100% of themselves in these situations.

Don: I am sorry that we have kept you in suspense for so long. A week ago yesterday Karen was admitted to Shands again at an unscheduled time. Turned out that she had blood clots around her picc line. Like many other things that don’t seem to go our way, this can be seen as one more blessing. This set up a chain of events that include Karen deciding that I needed to take a leave of absence from work and her still being in the hospital after more than a week.

How are those blessings? I was able to give 4 days notice of needing the leave. She has had fevers since late Friday afternoon, all day Saturday and resting peacefully now on Sunday night. The highest fever was today @ 104. We don’t think the fevers are over yet but will know for sure by tomorrow morning. If she does have a fever in the morning she will have to get a bunch of cat scans. I would have had to take leave starting now because of this weekend’s run of fever but it would have been with no notice.

Karen’s blood counts are taking forever to return to normal. If she had not been in the hospital already there is no telling what kind of bug she might have picked up and then we would have been in here by now anyway but battling who knows what. The fever she has now has not had any source bug associated with it. There has not been anything identified in any of the blood cultures they have done and they have done them often. It appears to be something that can just happen from having such low counts for so long. Like she has said all week, “At least I am not out there being exposed to the germs.” Her counts seem to be on the rise today.

I feel compelled to ask for a specific prayer tonight. “Dear God, please help Karen’s counts rise by morning so that the fever will stay gone. If things are not improved by tomorrow she would need to have a new picc line placed and that is what caused the trouble to begin with this time. Karen needs the next 4 weeks as time to build her strength before the bone marrow transplant. Please Lord let that healing begin now so that she can be as strong as possible before May 1st. Continue to watch over her and heal her during that time. Amen”

hi everyone, 

I/they figured out why I have been having all the chest/back pains.  I thought I had pulled a muscle, but when after several days it just wasn’t getting better,  I started worrying more.  Saturday when Don and I went to clinic, they ran some tests and found out I have a couple of blood clots.  They are sometimes caused by the PICC line (IV access located in my upper left arm).  One clot is in my neck and the other is in my armpit area.  I am now on heparin (anticoagulation therapy) IV, and they had to remove the PICC line.  I should get discharged (back to camper life) in a day or two, and continue with clinic visits until my counts recover.   they will put me on some type of anticoagulation therapy for several months to ensure no more clots.

Mom and dad took the boys to see a movie “diary of a wimpy kid”, and then brought them here to the hospital to hang out.  they picked them up again last night around 9 pm.  They will get to hang out today until time to go back to panama city this evening with Don.  I found out that they can stay with me here at the hospital overnite.  I never knew that.  Maybe when I come back for my transplant they will take turns spending the night here.  that would be alot of fun.

all is well,

karen

hi everyone,

We have good news.  We found out yesterday I have been approved for medicaid.  I called Shands immediately so they could get the ball rolling for a transplant.  There will be a lot to do between now and then and I of course do not have a schedule yet.  I may get some information monday of next week.  I think I will have to recover completely from this “consolidation chemo” before we can take the next step.  probably means at least 4 weeks, but at this point just a guess.

I have not been feeling good; blahs from chemo, and I pulled about a 100 muscles in my upper back/chest.  may have joined a gym in my sleep, and forgot to tell anyone. 

My sister Laura stayed with us wednesday nite and we had a blast.  She and Dad and I, sang country songs, while Dad picked the guitar.  My good friend Renee and her Dad also came over for a game of yatzee.  Mom and I really enjoy playing board games.  Renee is scheduled for her Bone marrow transplant at the end of this month so we are all real excited.  Her family is now camping right next to us here at Sportsmans Cove.  They are learning to adjust to “camper life”, and are really loving the beauty of this place.  It is really nice having a chemo friend for a neighbor.

Don and the kids are coming to visit tonight.  yeah!!!!!  We will have the weekend together and then they go home again sunday.  This will be my “low week” coming up so lets pray i get through it without any problems.

God is so good,

love karen

hi everyone.  I am doing good with the chemo.   No issues so far…  One more round   of chemo on saturday and then after sunday dose, I should be discharged.  I will then head to the camper for the next 2 weeks of clinic.  ughh.

Mom, stayed with me last night so that was nice, and Don gets to come in for the weekend tonight.  he will get here around 10pm or so.  can’t wait.

I am already missing family and home…but this is the last chemo round before a possible transplant so we are nearing the finish line.  Facebook has been awesome and I have been catching up with alot of my friends.  something I don’t do much of when I’m at home.  it really helps pass the time here in the hospital.

life can sometimes be really hard,  but its the little things that really matter…love, friendship, laughter, sunshine, and warm breezes are some of my favorites.  also the animals God blesses us with.  my dogs love me unconditionally!  love it!

love you guys

karen

Hi everyone!  its been a while since I have updated my site.  I am doing very well right now, and ready for the next round.  My tummy is completely better and I have been off of all the medications for a few days…so I feel great.  This is my 4th and hopefully last round of chemotherapy before I get a bone marrow transplant.  We are still working out the insurance/medicaid thing but its looking pretty good.  I’m sure I will have the transplant some time this summer unless we do something different.  we’ll keep you posted on all that.

I have had a wonderful time at home with my boys, and even got to see my older son, Randy.   It is Randy’s springbreak and he brought a few friends home with him from Harding University.   We all went to Jenks ave. Church of Christ.  Heather and her boyfriend came, and we all sat together. It was wonderful to be together to worship God.

love karen