It is Saturday morning and once again we are at the hospital and Tanner is having his chemo treatment. They gave us some mouthwash for him to use every day in the morning, after every meal, and before bed to help prevent getting the sores in his mouth. I hope it helps.
He had cheese toast before we left the apartment this morning along with all of his pills. Then when we got to the hospital, he wanted chicken noodle soup - at 8:30 a.m.! He kills me with the things he can eat first thing in the morning.
Our cousins Kathy and Bobby have come up from Texas and we are both excited to see them. They want to go to the grocery store and buy something to fix Tanner for lunch at the apartment. Tanner told me to tell them he wants tacos! Since he isnt't neutropenic at this time that should be okay.
They have told us that tomorrow they are going to give him melphalan which is the medicine that made him so sick during the first round of chemo. It is a medicine that can often make you sick and causes cold sores. He has to be sure and eat lots of ice before during and after the treatment so that it will constrict his blood vessels in his mouth to help prevent the cold sores. It caused him lots of nausea and vomitting last time but he didn't get any of the sores, so I hope he doesn't again this time either.
We talked to a friend we have made here who had his stem cell transplant a couple of days ago about how it went and he said it was really anti-climatic. He said you go through all these treatments and sickness all building up for the stem cell transplant and they hang the bag and it runs into you for about ten minutes and then you just sit there a couple of hours while they monitor you and it's done.
From what I understand, after the stem cell transplant on Wednesday, they will start giving him the growth factor shots again so that his body will start creating new cells once again and
his system will climb back up and then we can see what Dr. Barlogie says the next step is.Hopefully, it will be getting to go home for a while!
