Wednesday I Think?

This morning I woke up at 6:00. I wanted to make sure I got to the hospital before the doctors did rounds. The window in the apartment faces west so I watched the day lighten and waited for the sun to reflect on the buildings before I took this picture.

I arrived to Jim's room a little after 7:00. As it ended up the first set of doctors didn't come in until after 9:00. It was the lymphoma team. Basically it was the usual "how do you feel?" then they poked around until his underarm was hurting again. It has not gone down in size. They are waiting for yesterdays biopsy results to come back before formulating a plan.  We waited another hour or so and then I left to get Jim a triple latte with extra foam, his favorite hot drink at Starbucks. I also stopped by the Brazilian bakery and bought him a chocolate babka. I guess you could say my man is spoiled. :)

Earlier the medical attending told us about a patio at the end of the hall that we could walk out to get some fresh air. After the coffee and snacks Jim got on his mask, gloves and gown (required for him to go out of the room) and we walked over to the "relaxation area" where the patio was. Before getting very far into the space a lady named Carmen informed us Jim couldn't be in there because he was on isolation. For the protection of himself and other patients no one wearing masks and gloves could enter the area. It would have been nice if the doctor had known the rules before suggesting we go there.

Around 1:30 I walked back to the apartment. I did a load of laundry because the laundry room will be off limits for a few days due to renovations. While in the apartment I made a nice dinner to bring back to the hospital to have later. As fate would have it while I was gone Dr. Horwitz and his fellow popped in to see Jim along with the surgical team. It sounds like everyone is leaning towards Jim going to surgery and having the mass removed. Jim said the surgeon mentioned something about Saturday.

We had a nice dinner of salmon, rice and asparagus even if it was heated up later in the microwave.

Jim said the hospital food is not very good. It never is. For the next couple of hours we watched Breaking Bad on my laptop. I went back to the apartment at 10 pm. We were both in need of some rest. I think all the teams have to make their final decision tomorrow. After all Friday was supposed to be Jim's admission date to the transplant floor.

I want to say something about the donor. The Bone Marrow Registry is not allowed to give us much information but we do know he is a 29 year old man. For the past 3-4 days he has been receiving Neupogen shots which will help his bone marrow cells grow much faster than normal. Either today or tomorrow he will have his bone marrow extracted from his veins. This process can take 4-5 hours sometimes longer. Such is a selfless person who would go through this for another he has never met. Hopefully one day we will meet him.