Complimentary Disabilities

Well, Friday Tom was low on everything he possibly could be and needed transfusions of platelets, magnesium, and blood.  Because his appointment was so late they had him come in this morning.  At 4am he was up and wide awake in pain with a sore on his tongue (chemo is known to cause mouth sores, but this is the first he's had one).  Because he's also neutropenic, his body isn't able to take care of this sore, so it's grown increasingly more painful.  He took a pain pill to help and it went down hill from there.

His blood appointment was at 9 and he needed to drive because both cars are a manual and due to my hand surgery and drugs, I'm not allowed to drive.  At about 8am (20min before leaving) he started throwing up and afterward thought he was better and even ate. He struggled driving, but made it.  Then as soon as getting called back, he was sick again!  He got both bags of blood, but still wasn't feeling too well but wasn't showing the signs that would require admittance since the nausea meds seemed to keep him at bay and he had no fever.

Luckily, Louie and Kelly came to transport us and the car home. Thank you!!!!!

I have to say we were quite the pair for a couple of days! After some rest, Tom's stomach seemed to cooperate. Today (Tuesday) he went in for labs and as expected, he was in need of blood and platelets again. Due to time constraints he received one bag of blood (standard is two) and the one bag of platelets. Tomorrow he goes for the rest of the blood he is owed and may possibly require an extra unit as today's counts were only 7.7 for hemoglobin so two may not raise him above the 8.5 transfusion level. His platelets were also at 13 so it may be possible that he gets another bag of those tomorrow as well. I think Tom is keeping the blood banks in business!

On a brighter note, he had it in him and was granted permission to see Muse tonight! He was glad he made it as well, what a great show!

My hand is on the mend, but truth be told...I've been building upon this blog since Saturday because it's difficult to do this with one hand! We have done well at playing off each other's strengths, I need help dressing, cooking, driving, and...well, I suppose I'm useless. I can however retrieve pull bottles (though I can't open them) and drinks for Tom! I also am chief dog walker due to his limited mobility with such low blood. It is fair to say our house is a bit messy at the moment.

With that, I bid you all a goodnight as my "good" hand is struggling and if I don't finish this now, it may grow to have a month of updates before published. Love to you all!

Tom getting some rest while getting blood on Saturday, poor guy.