Wendy's Birthday

(I’m so tired at the end of the night that I apologize for my spelling, word smithing and anything that doesn’t make sense.)

This morning Van was hungry for the first time so I asked him what he would like and ordered everything he told me. I went to the cafeteria to get my breakfast (because it was my birthday and I LOVE breakfast food) and when I came back Van had eaten EVERYTHING, 1350 calories in one sitting. The most I have been able to get him to eat is 1200 calories in an entire day. As I walked into the room he was holding his stomach because he had a HUGE stomach ache which lasted for at least 4 hours. He said he won’t do that again. This drug (which must not be named) is causing the increased appetite so we are watching it really closely.

Van’s eyes have started to really go blurry so they sent us to the Optimologist (Eye Doctor) today. Van has to put on a yellow coat/covering, gloves, and a mask just to enter the hall. He has his I.V.’s hanging above him and sitting in a wheel chair. He was wheeled through the tunnels under the street and up to the Doctor’s Office in the Physicians Plaza. They found he is starting to bleed behind his eyes but not to a dangerous level yet. They found a pair of glasses that will work for the day so he can read. He is really missing reading his scriptures and his Clive Cussler book. The medicines he is taking will cause these problems so we aren’t sure how long these glasses will work.

His platelets are 27,000 and they should be 150,000. Normal people get a platelet transfusion at 30,000 but the teams of doctors have decided to wait until 20,000 because of the risks. So any kind of bleeding they really go ballistic. Today when his bone-marrow biopsy site was getting larger (with blood) and looking infected, we had two Doctors in our room in minutes and nurses were taking his blood to run to the lab to see if he needed the transfusion. But everything turned out ok for now.

His kidney levels for some reason keep going down so they did a Kidney Ultrasound because they thought there might be a blockage from all the white blood cells, stones, etc. It just came back and said he has damage his Reina Tibullus which will most likely be reversible.

Friends and family have been so good to us. His hospital room looks like a BYU Shrine. He has his favorite picture of Christ (in the red robe) hanging in his room with the quote “I can do all things through Christ, which strengthened me”. (Philippians 4:13) Another sign was made that said Van “Y” not beat it? He is surrounded with pictures of his family also.

A family member called and offered us the use of their three bedroom condo which is furnished and is only 2 minutes away. What a blessing to our family. I’ll be able to go sleep there once or twice a week (while someone comes to stay with him). Then after the bone marrow transplant they just told us that he will probably stay in the hospital a couple of months and then won’t be allowed to go home because he has to be within 30 minutes of the hospital and Tooele is too far. He will need to stay in the condo for a few weeks until he is really stable and they feel comfortable in sending him home. They say he will be coming back into the hospital many times after the transplant. The condo - what another tender mercy.

Today so many people wished me Happy Birthday and family members and friends brought gifts. Van has been asking what I wanted for my birthday from him and I just wanted to lie next to him and take a nap. I miss being next to him so much. It was a beautiful thing. I love my husband so dearly. Thank you for everyone’s e-mails, cards, visits and posts. I wish I could answer them all.