An Extended Stay at MDACC for Friday night, 11/5/10

Joe will be staying another night at MDACC to keep the brakes on tumorlysis from hurting his kidneys thusavoiding dialysis. The med crew is confident that protecting the kidneys will be successful. I wonder how long Joe will be staying here. Our pastor, Caleb, will be flying to Houston tomorrow from Atlanta. His flight will arrive around Noon. I wonder if we will be out of the hospital. We have no idea.

Joe ordered a cheeseburger, french fries, cheesecake and ice tea! A real gourmet meal, huh! I hope he eats it since the meds that cost $5000 a dose requires food in his stomach. It is 5:40pm late Friday afternoon. The nurse will bring me a copy of his latest blood results before she goes off shift at 7PM. Tonight I may stay in the studio apartment. It all depends on how Joe is doing.

I called Pastor Caleb and advised him to call us when he landed since we are not sure where we will be. Hopefully, we will be back in the studio apartment. God willing. He said that he was looking forward to seeing us and giving us a hug. I told him I could sure use a huge hug after the last 48 hours.

The Blood tests were completed to check only certain aspects of the blood that affects the kidneys to control the effect of tumorlysis. Here is a partial list showing the normal range and what it was on other dates

11/1 Monday (no chemo) checked in
11/2 and 11/3 two days of MethoTREXate
11/4 one day of Cytrabine
11/5 Rituzimab started at 1AM stopped at about 9AM

                                                      11/1           11/3         11/4       11/5AM     11/5PM
Creatinine Serum (.7-1.3)               1.02           .97           .90            1.09            1.17
Sodium Serum (135-147)               136            139          135           137             136
Potassium Serum (3.5-5.0)              4.4            4.2            4.3            5.3H            4.5
Chloride Serum  (98-108)              103             100          100           101             102
Carbon Dioxide (23-30)                 32H            33H         27             25                28
Blood Urea Nitrogen (8-20)            23H           21H         27H           40H             44H 
Lactate Dehydrogenase (313-618)   935H         731H       n/a           770H       749H
Uric Acid Serum (2.6-7.1)               6.6              n/a         7.6H          10.6H         6.7
Phosphorous Serum (2.5-4.5)         3.8              4.9H       5.4H           6.5H       7.4H
Calcium Serum (8.4-10.2)               8.4             8.0L        n/a             8.1L             7.6L
Magnesium Serum (1.8-2.9)            2.2             2.2          2.2             2.0               2.6
Ionized Calcium (unknown)             n/a              n/a           n/a             n/a             1.01L

I am about ready to leave for the evening and get a decent meal on the way back to the studio apartment where I will spend the night. My phone will be right next to the bed in case Joe needs me.

A good night for solitary prayer and thankfulness.

Ciao!
Bonnie