Evan and I left home Friday morning at 8:30 for 12:30 appointment to have a Hickman line put in. We walked in to the hospital waiting room expecting Evan to be called back for the procedure. Instead, we were immediately taken to his room on the BMT unit. It wasn't long before someone came and and said that IR (Interventional Radiology, as we later learned) was backed up and he'd go in for the line procedure at about 2:00 p.m. Since Evan could eat nothing prior to that 12:30 appointment and drink nothing for 2 hours prior to the procedure, it didn't make him very happy to have to wait. But, by the time they actually informed us of the delay, it was less than an hour to the 2:00 time, so we accepted the news with a scowl and watched Jimmy Stewart in Shenandoah.
It was probably about 2:15 when the nurse returned saying that Evan would be going sometime before 4:00. The reaction was more than a scowl. Shortly after this news, Kit arrived. Each hospital staff member who entered the room told us they would do all they could to push the time ahead, but it was really a problem with IR. And push they did. Evan went in for the procedure to place the Hickman at about 4:15 p.m. Once that was finished, at about 5:40 p.m., we all converged upon Alyssa's apartment to consolidate vehicles before the four of us headed headed out for dinner.
Kit and Evan selected the Red Stag restaurant as the site for Evan's last public appearance for a while. Excellent choice! The men both had the northern pike fish fry while we women both ordered the blue gill fish fry. We shared an appetizer of smelt fries. The food was delicious, the libations were top notch, the waiter excellent, and the company appreciative of these last few hours of Evan's freedom as he had to return to the hospital by 9:00 p.m. to officially start his Day -7.
Friday night was flushing the system. Saturday morning brought the chemo. Again. It will supposedly be no more difficult for him to tolerate that anything else he's had and he's had a boatload. I stayed until just after 1:00 on Saturday afternoon, and he seemed to be doing fine. Kit was there and they were settling in for Day -6. It was very difficult to leave knowing that Evan has to remain there for so long, but his spirits were good, Kit was with him and all was going as it should.
I spoke with Evan a little while ago. He was looking forward to Alyssa's arrival with some Venison stew. The meat is from the 5-point buck Evan shot on Wednesday. He was able to squeeze in two weeks of bow hunting before heading to Minneapolis and managed to to shoot two deer in that time. There will be no shortage of venison for the Ruesches this year. Already two deer and Paul, Ned, Kit and Karl haven't even begun.
Karl will head to Alyssa's tonight and begin the process of building up his stem cell production on Monday. He'll receive an injection daily until the the 5th day -- Day 0 -- when he spends the day hooked up to a machine that will collect his healthy stem cells. Evan will receive them the same day.
The transplant calendar starts at Day -7 and progresses to Day 0 -- the transplant. It then follows a positive number sequence. At first that numbering system rather baffled me; however, I've now come to embrace that notion that the transplant date starts everything fresh and every day that follows is a positive one. We're all looking forward to that!
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