Starting to Feel It

Now Jon has been infused with three days of toxins and he is starting to feel the effects. It's not terrible. Alissa says the next two days of "rest" are so that his body can absorb all of this and start killing off the white blood cells. He is tired and a little nauseous and he has a slight temperature but there is nothing to get excited about yet. The rule is that we have to call if he gets up to 100.5 degrees, but they assure us that they usually just say to take Tylenol and come see them in the morning.

The nurse that took care of him today was one we remember well from last time, or maybe the time before. Very nice and personable and reassuring. They do this work all day long, all year long, and I doubt they see anything new very often. She told us that the thing we did last time, when he was taking Talquetamab under supervision, was called a "bite." So we have been here for two transplants, a bite, and now this.

I went back to the IPOP at about 11:30 and I could see that he was dragging a little. We walked back to the hotel slowly.  We were going to go to Kaiser and get all these drugs that were ordered on Saturday. Even though I am supposed to stay by his side all the time (we are not exactly sure when that starts), I said I would go myself since he was already slumped all the way down on the couch. It's good that I went alone because I had to wait for 45 minutes for the pharmacy to re-open after lunch and for them to assemble the order. He would have been slumped on their couch, looking pitiful.

We had a quiet afternoon. Jon hadn't eaten anything since breakfast and he wasn't looking too hungry, but I am not having the same treatment so I said I wanted to order from the Afghan restaurant that is directly across the street from this hotel. He was well enough to make the order, I crossed the street to pick it up, and he joined me for a little bit of dinner. We could go for a long time like this, ordering food from all around the neighborhood, putting leftovers in the fridge for lunch. What a life. Rebecca is going to kill us when we bring home a big bag of condiments from all the meals.

I am writing a steady trickle of employee recommendations, which makes me feel like I still have a job. 

They want to check his platelets tomorrow because they are dropping close to the lower limit so we still have to go in, but it's not a hardship. If Jon ever feels too tired to walk, there is a shuttle. I predict that won't happen for a while.


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