BMT Day +25 “A shitty, crappy week” pardon Teri’s Chinese

3/12/11

What are Teri’s current problems?

Her white blood counts have inched up to 800 and holding steady.  Ben’s seedlings are growing slowly but are growing.    

The mucositis (breakdown of lining of mouth, throat and beyond) became infected by herpes simplex type 1, the cold sore virus.  It has progressively worsened so that every swallow is painful as her mouth and throat feels like one large chancre sore.  She coats it with benzocaine for temporary relief.  The team is worried that is may be resistant to acyclovir, the antiviral agent she had been on, so she was switched to foscarnet.  It requires 12 hours to infuse it:  preinfusion, infusion and postinfusion + calcium as needed.  To get all of her nutrition, antibiotics, antivirals and fluids in, she now has between 5 and 6 IV’s running simultaneously. 

On day +22, she developed lower right abdominal pain and hematuria (blood in the urine) and was sent for an ultrasound and CAT scan.  A blood clot was found blocking her right ureter (drainage tube from kidney to bladder) that was stretching the ureter and kidney acting as if it were a painful kidney stone.  They began to flush it out and became one of the first woman placed upon Flomax ‘for her male side’ to get the ureter to push out the clot.  Later, BK virus was identified as the cause of hemorrhagic cystitis (infection of the bladder lining).  Because she was awakening hourly to pee and getting no more than 1 hour of continuous sleep, a Foley catheter was placed in her bladder … we can now view the blood in Technicolor.

Whoa.

How is Teri doing? 

Teri says:  I am completely sleep deprived and at times at my wits end.  I sometimes cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel and get emotional and cry.  It’s a vicious cycle.  The pain in my mouth and throat causes difficulty talking, eating and swallowing but I need to get protein (fertilizer) into my bone marrow (soil).  My tummy is getting better but the bladder cramps are still coming frequently.

Tony, her brother, is here for three weeks providing additional support, comfort and cooking.  Teri and B are enjoying his company and are happy to have him here.  He made the family man tou (steamed bun) recipe and a new one (hua zhuan) with green onions.

BMT is not for the faint-hearted, only the lion-hearted.  Teri, based upon the Chinese Zodiac, is really more tiger-hearted, and that she is. 

Teri needs your thoughts, prayers telepathy and long-distance Reike during this difficult period.  Thank you all!