Our friends are traveling Europe..... Sylvester Style......... 5 adults, 2 children, 1 R.V. designed for 6, 21 days..... You get the drift....
For a few laughs read their adventures at http://www.sylvesteracostaeuropeanvacation.blogspot.com/
I wish them the best of luck, they'll need it!!
Monday, June 23, 2008
Saturday, June 21, 2008
23 - The B(o)MB
FYI, not really the bomb but I'm having my Bone Marrow Biopsy this Monday morning. If anyone has some leftover Morphine, just email it over!!
---------
6/23/08
Well the BMB is done and actually went a lot easier than last time, still not quite comfortable, but definitely faster and less painfull than last time. Per the nurse they had some new needles that they thought were sharper hence it was easier to get through the bone, whatever it was, it was better. Now hopefully the results are good and I'll only have to go through this once a year from here on out!
---------
6/23/08
Well the BMB is done and actually went a lot easier than last time, still not quite comfortable, but definitely faster and less painfull than last time. Per the nurse they had some new needles that they thought were sharper hence it was easier to get through the bone, whatever it was, it was better. Now hopefully the results are good and I'll only have to go through this once a year from here on out!
22 - The First Update
All-right, I’ll admit it……… I’ve been a very bad boy as far as my blog is concerned…… 2 months, really………. Excuses…….. Plenty!!!!
So where to begin in this first catch up entry……… Let’s start at the most important bit, the birth of Isanne.
The whole birth experience sure was a lot easier than with our previous daughter, mainly due to the fact that the baby did not have to be induced this time (which was a 36-hour affair last time around). When the contractions started Jill actually had to call her cousin to check if these odd cramps were indeed contractions, and I went into timing mode. About an hour and a half into the contractions they started coming at regular and short intervals so we called Kaiser to let them know we were coming and rushed to the hospital.
When we arrived Jill “kindly requested” (read that with a lot of sarcasm) the epidural, and she barely got it. The nurse told us pretty shortly after the epidural was administered that if Jill was ready, the baby was ready to be delivered. Jill insisted she wasn’t quite ready to push yet, but after she finished watching an episode of CSI, she put her mind to it and Isanne was born in about 7-8 pushes. Pretty incredible stuff!!
Now for the CML related bit, we had decided to store the cord blood of our newborn for future use. Not that it really can be of any use at this point, Gleevec is working just fine, and the total amount drawn from the cord is not enough for an adult anyway. However, we felt it would be a good insurance for our daughter if she might need in the future, or for me, if regeneration of stem cells ever becomes a realistic possibility. Anyway, our delivery doctor had come in previously and asked us if we had any specific reason for collecting the cord blood. We told him about the Leukemia and he replied by saying that he would try extra hard to get out as much cord blood as he could. The nurse later told us that we just “happened” to get the head honcho who does inner womb blood transfusion.
-------
On a sidenote, a little odd, but whenever the subject of cord-blood storage has come up, I've felt compelled to make sure everybody knows that Jill was already pregnant before we found out about the Leukemia. I guess I don't want anybody to think we had the baby for the cord blood. Kinda dumb, I know, so as of now, I'm done making that point!!
------
Needless to say we felt like we were being looked after, some might call it luck, we feel otherwise!! In any case, as it turned out, he did try his absolute best. As he told us after he was all done, he drew 138cc, which was the most he ever had been able to get. The Cord Blood Storage people later told us that it was one of their larger draws and they had collected 20 billion stem cells (sounds like a lot anyway).
So we won’t call it a miracle birth yet, but we’re getting pretty close! Anyway, on to the baby, she’s doing great and couldn’t be more content. Sorry to Ella if you ever read this, but she’s a breeze compared to your younger days ;-)!! She’s starting to just wake up once for a feeding in the night, which really helps with getting enough zzzzzzzzzz’s at night. She’s just starting to respond to people and it is really magical to see the little face light up when she sees you and crack a smile, kick some legs, and let out a little googoo gaga!!
All right, next update to follow later!!
So where to begin in this first catch up entry……… Let’s start at the most important bit, the birth of Isanne.
The whole birth experience sure was a lot easier than with our previous daughter, mainly due to the fact that the baby did not have to be induced this time (which was a 36-hour affair last time around). When the contractions started Jill actually had to call her cousin to check if these odd cramps were indeed contractions, and I went into timing mode. About an hour and a half into the contractions they started coming at regular and short intervals so we called Kaiser to let them know we were coming and rushed to the hospital.
When we arrived Jill “kindly requested” (read that with a lot of sarcasm) the epidural, and she barely got it. The nurse told us pretty shortly after the epidural was administered that if Jill was ready, the baby was ready to be delivered. Jill insisted she wasn’t quite ready to push yet, but after she finished watching an episode of CSI, she put her mind to it and Isanne was born in about 7-8 pushes. Pretty incredible stuff!!
Now for the CML related bit, we had decided to store the cord blood of our newborn for future use. Not that it really can be of any use at this point, Gleevec is working just fine, and the total amount drawn from the cord is not enough for an adult anyway. However, we felt it would be a good insurance for our daughter if she might need in the future, or for me, if regeneration of stem cells ever becomes a realistic possibility. Anyway, our delivery doctor had come in previously and asked us if we had any specific reason for collecting the cord blood. We told him about the Leukemia and he replied by saying that he would try extra hard to get out as much cord blood as he could. The nurse later told us that we just “happened” to get the head honcho who does inner womb blood transfusion.
-------
On a sidenote, a little odd, but whenever the subject of cord-blood storage has come up, I've felt compelled to make sure everybody knows that Jill was already pregnant before we found out about the Leukemia. I guess I don't want anybody to think we had the baby for the cord blood. Kinda dumb, I know, so as of now, I'm done making that point!!
------
Needless to say we felt like we were being looked after, some might call it luck, we feel otherwise!! In any case, as it turned out, he did try his absolute best. As he told us after he was all done, he drew 138cc, which was the most he ever had been able to get. The Cord Blood Storage people later told us that it was one of their larger draws and they had collected 20 billion stem cells (sounds like a lot anyway).
So we won’t call it a miracle birth yet, but we’re getting pretty close! Anyway, on to the baby, she’s doing great and couldn’t be more content. Sorry to Ella if you ever read this, but she’s a breeze compared to your younger days ;-)!! She’s starting to just wake up once for a feeding in the night, which really helps with getting enough zzzzzzzzzz’s at night. She’s just starting to respond to people and it is really magical to see the little face light up when she sees you and crack a smile, kick some legs, and let out a little googoo gaga!!
All right, next update to follow later!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
