Day 43

Yesterday marked 6 weeks post transplant.  Willie woke up feeling OK and ate a pretty good breakfast.  When we got to the cancer center he was blindsided by a wave of nausea and lost it all in the trash.  They ushered us into a private room and he laid down on the bed.  The nurse drew his blood then Dr. Lenny came in.
"What are you doing in bed?" He asked, but it was more of an accusation.
"I just got sick and threw up." Willie replied.
"So I take it your still nauseous then?" Lenny said as me made a note in the computer. 
"You know I haven't seen you sitting up in a chair at one appointment yet." He pointed out.  "You're too far in the game to still be feeling this sick.  I'm also concerned because you lost 4 more pounds over the weekend.  I'm going to order the stomach scope so we can see what's going on."
He is a tough love type of guy and we respond well to him.
Willie wasn't so sure about getting a scope done, but Lenny talked him through the process and explained that he will be asleep and small tube will be guided into his intestines to see what's going on.  They will be looking for areas of redness or inflammation.  If they see anything they will clip a small sample and test it.  There is a whole host of things that could be causing the problem.  Most simply would be finding a tummy bug of some sort that can easily be treated.  More complicated would be finding graft versus host disease in the gut which would require a heavy medication regiment.  We are hoping that they don't find this. 
Lenny was quick to remind us that even if it is GVHD in the gut, it is only temporary.  We will need to treat it now and he can try to wean of medications later. 
"At this point in your recovery you should be having more good days than bad days and I don't see that happening for you." He patted Willie on the shoulder as he said it.  "I know your Grandma's funeral is tomorrow, but I don't think it's the best idea for you to be going right now."
We nodded in agreement.  Willie has been nauseous all day long since Sunday and I was worried that we would have to tote the pink throw up bucket to the graveside service if we decided to go.  We agreed it was probably safer to stay here in Palo Alto, although we would much rather be at the service.
They scheduled the stomach scope for 7 AM tomorrow morning which means we will be up bright and early!  I'll keep you posted on what the results are.  In the mean time, we need all the prayers we can get that they will be able to find a solution to his tummy woes and that he will begin having some good days!