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| 2 minutes after IV pain meds, Willie fell alseep with Donkey Kong arms. |
His platelets had dropped to 7 so he got an infusion. I didn't want to leave until the infusion was done since he had a reaction last time. The platelets went in without a hitch and his fever broke around midnight.
I was exhausted so he told me to sleep in which I did, and it was awesome! I woke up at 8 AM today and called Willie.
"My fever is back up." He sounded distressed "And I have this horrible pain in my lower back."
"Have you been peeing?" I thought perhaps it was his kidneys.
"I guess so. I don't know. It hurts."
The doctors hadn't come in yet so I hurried to shower and get to the hospital. I hoped to make it before they rounded, but I missed them by 5 minutes. When I came into the room, Willie was writhing in pain and his nurse was giving him some IV pain meds.
"What did the doctors say?" I asked.
He winced then groaned.
"They said he is having engraftment pain." The nurse spoke for him "It is actually a good thing because it tell us that the new cells are grafting into the empty marrow."
"It doesn't feel like a good thing!" Willie shouted.
He breathed heavily while he waited for the pain meds to kick in. Within 30 seconds his breathing began to slow and he laid back on the bed.
After a few minutes he opened his eyes and looked at me as if I had just come into the room.
"Hey baby." He said."Was it nice to sleep in?"
The pain meds were definitely working!
I thanked him for letting me sleep and asked about his night. He said the back pain had started about 3 AM and hadn't let up all night. The pain meds help, but only for about an hour. We did what we always do at times like these and consulted google. I found an article from Colombia University that described the process of bone marrow engraftment.
"Listen to this," I said to Willie "This article says that engraftment pain feels like falling on ice and smashing your tailbone."
"That sounds about right." He agreed, rubbing his hips. "It's awful."
About an hour later, the nurse came back into the room with an announcement.
"I wanted to give you guys a heads up so you are completely blindsided." She said.
Willie opened his eyes and I turned toward her.
She had peaked our interest. What could she possibly tell us?
"We just finished our team meeting about your case and you will most likely be leaving the hospital on Wednesday."
"WHAT?!" I shouted at her. It didn't make any sense that we are anywhere near going home based on the state he is in today.
"That's right. This engraftment pain tells us that his counts will start rising this weekend. We think he will be fine to go home by Wednesday."
I was stunned.
Willie looked like he was asleep.
I nudged him.
"Did you hear that? What do you think of that?"
His face was emotionless and I didn't expect an answer in his pain med haze.
"That makes me really happy." He finally said with a medicated smile covering his face.
The nurse left him to sleep with a promise to return in an hour.
His pain meds ran out before then and he was in a lot of pain when she returned.
"Can I get a pain pump?" He pleaded.
"No, I'm sorry, you can't" The nurse replied "You are too far into recovery to start a pump. You'll just have to tough it out with the IV meds we have for you."
I felt like I was witnessing a woman in labor who begs for an epidural only to be informed it was too late.
He's going to have to get through this the natural way.
With A LOT of fentanyl and oxycodone!
The good news is that the pain is temporary. No one can define how long temporary is, but we're hoping this is a one day thing.
I hate that he has endure this pain, but I'm so happy for the sign that his body is responding well to the cells. I never thought I would be grateful for my husband to have debilitating back pain, but that's what I'm putting on my gratitude chain tonight. .
No Pain. No Gain!
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