February 11, 2009 10:00 PM

As they say, the best laid plans of mice and men…

Having been directed to call the hospital at noon today to get my admission time, our phone rang at 8 this morning wondering where we were! It seems that someone was supposed to have called us yesterday and have me come in then. The whole process had been pulled in a day and Monday is now the projected date for the transplant to occur. Funny how that works, because my wife and I have been believing that to be the case when in fact the transplant was originally set for Tuesday.

The change in plans cost me my last visit to a restaurant to have breakfast. I was kind of looking forward to it – but it wasn’t meant to be. However, not getting the phone call yesterday allowed us to blindly go forward with our dinner plans for last night which would, otherwise, have been aborted.

However, as with hospitals, it’s the usual tale of hurry up and wait. We rushed to Boston to get here - assuming that they wanted to get the process underway immediately. I make it to the room before noontime and then wait until 5:30 before they actually began the day 1 chemo. Admittedly, some doctors stopped by in the meantime but it was mostly to introduce themselves to me and my wife. However, they did admit that they had heard “an awful lot about me” – whatever that means! Since I am back in the same pod as I was last November, it was also a lot of fun touching base with the nursing staff again.

Without a doubt, knowing the hospital routine makes it a lot easier to assimilate myself back into this environment. Mouth care, ordering food, when the vitals are taken, knowing what to bring from home, etc. have made the transition from home to here for the third time a rather smooth operation. I am counting on there NOT being a fourth time.

Still a few other details to mention. Now that I am in bone marrow transplant (BMT) mode, all guests must wear masks and gloves. My wife is finding it somewhat difficult because it gets hot in the mask and the mask hurts your ears after a while. You are not allowed to bring any personal belongings into the room – coats, hats, pocket books, etc. The few personal items that I brought with me had to be cleaned before they could be brought into the room. I am not allowed to leave the room unless it is specifically for medical reasons. So visiting me over these 8 days is not going to be a very pleasant experience for any of you. Strangely, all bets are off when I go home – but that’s another story.

Medicationwise, they have already started me on antibiotics and have warned me that when I leave next week, I will be taking anywhere from 12 to 13 medications a day. These they hope to winnow down rather quickly over the first month to a more manageable number. Over the next few days we’ll get lessons in what each medication does and how to administer it. This is a HUGE change for someone who currently takes no medications at all.

Now for the most important question of the next 8 days – how will I survive the hospital food this time when I am not allowed to have food brought in from the outside? It turns out that it is a lot easier than I ever thought! Thank God! They gave me a BMT menu today from which to order. It differs from the regular menu that I had twice before because it is devoid of salads, fresh fruit, any items with seeds, etc. However, it has one very important addition - a section containing a variety of Stouffers Frozen Entrees! So far, I have survived by having one of these for lunch and another one for dinner. I have to admit that the hospital cafeteria does do a great job at warming up frozen food and the Stouffers food is much more palatable than anything that the hospital has ever produced.

So, as I write this, I have just completed the day 1 chemo regimen and it’s been a case of so far so good. Now that I am here, some of the anxiety and concern has seemed to diminish as the pace of activities has picked up and I am now actually heading toward the transplant date. Rumor has it, by the way, that my donor is on the east coast and that the marrow blood type is A positive which is my blood type as well. We’ll get confirmation over the next few days.

A rather lengthy entry for the day but we are back into full activity mode and there is much going on.

Thanks for bearing with me…

Bob