Wednesday, October 5, 2016

On the road to the transplant.

Yesterday (Tuesday), Bruce, Janet and I were in the car heading to Omaha to see Dr. Zimmer about the lung infection. She was pleased with the way the pills were working and gave me the all clear to proceed with the transplant. I will stay on the anti-fungals through the transplant for a couple of months then have another CAT scan to make sure the spot hasn't changed.

We ended up getting a three-for-one special when Dr. Zimmer called Stacy, the transplant nurse case manager who coordinates everything, and she stopped in. She said it looked like all systems go and we could start next week with the pre-transplant stuff. Stacy was rattling off dates and what would go on when I suddenly had a meltdown, burst into tears and said, "I don't think I want to do this!!" Which is REALLY STUPID!! I don't want to go through this again and it's highly likely that the lymphoma would rear it's ugly head again in the near future.

With Bruce patting my leg, I regrouped, put my big girl panties on and listened to the tentative schedule. For the next three weeks there will be a mix of inpatient and outpatient procedures, where I will stay at a hotel and be shuttled to the hospital, with time off for good behavior to come home. I have a good chance of getting a week off between retrieval of the stem cells and the final incarceration that has a target date of Oct 25 to recouperate. That gives me time to get used to not being home every night, I'm such a homebody that I know that will be the worst.

Then Dr. Lunning stopped in for a chat so we really felt special, I got a jump on things by getting a flu shot (ouch!) and having blood drawn. Stacy said anyone I'm going to be around much should have a flu shot, so be forewarned, Bruce is getting his on Friday. (Something neither of us ever do!)

It was fairly early when we left so we decided to find the Cabela's store west of Omaha. We just heard that Bass Pro is going to buy them out and Bruce had a lot of points on his Cabela's card. We had no idea if that would all change with the buy out and didn't want to take the chance, he wanted to spend that sucker down.

He asked one of the nurses the best way to get there, she said to take 42nd st south to 80 W, follow it to 680 W and we would be there. It's 6 lanes of traffic going at an insane speed so Janet and I were the navigators while Bruce kept his eye peeled on the road. Janet googled it on her phone and it was telling us it was 8 miles away, I kept looking for a sign, they always have a big sign. We just went under an overpass when Bruce pointed south and said, "It's in a place like that......THERE IT IS!" The big green roof and on the back side said CABELAS in big letters. Janet's phone told us we still had to go 3 more miles! We did have to drive another couple of miles to turn around, we never did see a sign but we learned the exit to take was 'Giles'.

So we had fun shopping in Cabelas, Bruce got a nice pair of boots with his Cabela's bucks, no money exchanged hands and even got more points back on his card. Janet bought Foof a birthday present. The people working said there wouldn't be any change in the rewards system but we just didn't want to take any chances.

We were happy to leave the rat race behind us get back on our familiar interstate 29 where we drove most of the way home in the rain. I'm feeling better today, as one friend put it, take one day at a time and Sue send me a bible verse, Psalm 46.1 : 

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.

I just need to remember that and all the people who are praying for us and encouraging us. Last week Sara and Joanne from the garden club brought me a gift from their church.



Of course the tears flowed, what a wonderful, thoughtful gift. Each month they have a quilting day where they make these beautiful quilts and give them away. People I don't even know have stitched and prayed over this quilt to give me strength.
I'm so blessed.

2 comments:

  1. thats an awesome ministry that Oakdale is doing! Indeed, Julie you are truly blessed! And its a beautiful quilt! Full of love, God's promises ......what more can any of us ask?

    ReplyDelete
  2. thats an awesome ministry that Oakdale is doing! Indeed, Julie you are truly blessed! And its a beautiful quilt! Full of love, God's promises ......what more can any of us ask?

    ReplyDelete