Day 1: Catheters, cytoxin and calories, oh my!!

Yay Richard. He successfully made it through today's poking, probing and chest cathetering (yes, I've made "catheter" into a verb). We went for coffee while awaiting "the call" that a hospital bed was available, and checked in about 11:30. Eventually we got settled into the bone marrow transplant ward, which is about a 6-bed unit with a room for family to hang out, cook, and even run on a treadmill. Right.

Richard donned a hospital gown, some really cool grey socks with non-skid soles, and a pair of jammie bottoms. He's been wanting new jammies, so we *scored* this trip.

We had a great view of another building, which actually came in handy later...we were bored at about 6 pm and began discussing whether or not a breeze was moving the tops of the trees across the street. By the way, it was about 105 degrees outside at the time and 62 degrees in our room.

Richard was poked three times for an IV. Ouch. He got a lot of drugs. Legally. Then got carted away to have a couple of incisions in the upper right hand side of his chest, where they inserted a very large catheter down an artery. Three tips hang out, available for doses of toxic chemo and other yummy stuff. (Think here what it would look like to have a corsage with three wilted stems and you have an idea of what it looks like. Great look with those jammies.) I snuck away and walked to Starbucks for lunch. Did I mention it was 105 degrees in Sacramento today? Hot. Seriously.

Richard returned to the room and began talking non-stop. I think he was feeling no pain. A visit by the doctor, dinner, calls to family, a visit by daughter Lisa, and finally a DVD of "Rainman" to fall asleep by. (Geez, Tom Cruise was about 12 in that film. And Dustin Hoffman is most definitely one of the best actors ever.) I noticed at dinner that the hospital had him on 2000 calories a day, and here I am trying to get him to gain weight! He was famished, which I was glad to hear, so he had several snacks of graham crackers and milk. Maybe that was comfort food?

So Richard should be released on Friday afternoon if all goes well. Then daily infusions of neupogen to stimulate stem cell growth. Richard's white cell count should go down for a while, so no public showings for a while. Just as well, with this heat.

Oh! Gracie is almost at the end of her cross-country journey (see link on the sidebar). Amazing!

Love to you all.