My Bone Marrow Transplant: Day 11

LOCATION: Vanderbilt University Hospital - Stem Cell Unit
DATE: 8.25.12    DAY: 11
MOOD:   Despondent.
MENTAL STATE:  Looking for the light at the end of the tunnel.
PHYSICAL STATE:  Weak and nauseated.


Day 11 brought with it the usual crummy feeling that I had been experiencing in the previous days.  I was told I would receive platelets around 10:00a and be pre-medicated around 9:30a.  So, I decided to brush my teeth and wash my face before that got started.  As I finished brushing my teeth I began to puke up green bile.  A lot of green bile.  Apparently my stomach had been holding onto it's contents for awhile because I had not been eating or drinking anything due to the mucositis.  Once back in bed I slept til 11:00a at which time they gave me a steroid premed which seemed to cause my entire jaw to swell and ache.  I also developed a very bad headache. The nurse gave me 1mg of morphine and when that didn't help she gave me two more, being careful to administer slowly as morphine can cause nausea.

I ended up staying in bed until about 3:00p and was just feeling better when my husband surprised me with his visit.  He was not scheduled to come in until Sunday, but I was glad he showed up early.  Feeling so much better he walked laps with me in the hall and surprisingly I was able to walk almost 30 minutes!

At 6:00p I was given my last dose of chemotherapy, methotrexate.  Thankfully it's side effects wouldn't be felt until later in the evening when I noticed my gums had swollen again and I had thick mucus.   At shift change, around 7:30p, my head started to hurt and I asked for 2 oxycodone to be given with the start of my cyclosporine.  An hour and a half later my headache had increased and they tried a mixture of Benadryl and and another drug to ease my headache.  But it did not work.  Chills had started up again and I would shake violently anytime I got out of bed to use the restroom.  The chills did not help my headache, but rather made it worse. I was given 2mg of morphine and around 11:00p that night I noticed I felt very hot even though I was still having chills  The nurse took my temperature and I had a 100.6 fever which meant I had to undergo a protocol for patients that develop a fever.  Blood cultures were taken, I was started on antibiotics, gave a urine sample, and at about 1:30a the next morning an x-ray technician came and did a chest x-ray.  About that time my headache was still present so I was given another 2mg of morphine.  It was a very long and painful evening.