September 2, 2011 (Friday)

David was miserable last night and throughout the day today. Cora and Margaret (friends from their church) watched the kids so Chrissy was able to drive up and stay with David today for 3 hours.

David was having a horrible time swallowing; he says it feels as though he has 30 canker sores in his mouth and down his throat.  His mucus is very thick and he has a very small opening in his throat to swallow. He was told that it is bad for his lungs and stomach to be swallowing; the nurse came in and gave him a suction tube similar to what you use when you’re at the dentist.

Dr. Territo (his Transplant oncologist) came in for a visit. She warned David to not let the suction hose touch the sores in his mouth. During the consultation appointment prior to admittance, Dr. Territo and the radiologists had warned us that the mouth sores would happen. The lining of the mouth is full of fast growing cells and the radiation and chemo kill those cells. They also told us that one of the first indications that the bone marrow was regenerating would be the mouth sores would start to feel better. We were told it could take up to 12 to 24 days. One of the nurses gave us hope that many times it doesn’t take that many days. David tried to pose for a picture but my camera couldn't get a shot of the multiple sores  could see. It looked very painful. When he tried to take a sip of water he writhed in pain for several minutes.

His counts for the day were:

WBC = .06

HGB = 9.1

Plts = 3.5

Chrissy said he enjoyed her visit. David has to take a bath every other day in the antibiotic solution. Chrissy helped him take a bath and that really used up all the energy that he had for the day. Because it was the Friday of Labor Day weekend, the traffic out of LA was awful and it took Chrissy 4 hours to drive home.

David’s hair is falling out and it is really bothering him. We tried rubbing his head with a wet wash cloth to try to get it to fall out faster and we weren’t having much luck. His nurse assistant came in and saw us and brought back a razor and buzzed his head.

David's hair is falling out again

The Nurse assistant buzzing his hair

The Hickman central line catheter so far has worked for David the best, he says he can sleep partially on his stomach. All the other IV lines have bothered him more.