Sixth induction phase - Day 4

I've come to realize that I don't like change.  Sometimes change is good - but when I'm getting slammed with life events at 90 knots an hour - change is feature I can do without.  I still look back at some events that has happened in my life and wondered what was the lesson learnt?  Friends and family always say that when something significantly bad happens in your life - there is some lesson to be learnt.  For example, when I got laid off during the dot-com crash in 2001 - I'm sure there was a lesson.  Actually there was a couple - so I'm being unfairly critical - but it's frustrating to have the same event repeat or for things not to stabilize.

The same thing happened with Jonathan during his sixth - and hopefully last round of chemotherapy treatment.  The anti-cancer drugs he was receiving this time was the same drugs he received during this first, second and fourth rounds.  Nothing new, nothing strange - and was definitely the 'easier' of the sets of drugs to receive and recover - but we were in for a surprise this round!  When Jonathan went in for his pre-admin check-up - they discovered his blood pressure was very high - averaging around 160 over 100.

Earlier in the day I got a call from the clinic informing me that they were out of beds so we had the option of bring Jonathan in for labs and then coming back the next day (Friday) or doing everything on Friday.  Since Gabby and the kids were in the area - we decided to get the labs done so if a bed frees up in the night then Jonathan could get admitted.  Well - when they found out that Jonathan had high-blood pressure - they admitted him right away.  This time we went to a ward that we have never been too - 3 North.

The medical team wanted to get his blood pressure under control before starting chemo treatment - so Jonathan spent Thursday night and the entire day Friday being treated for high blood pressure.  Although his blood pressure was not under complete control - they decided to start the chemo treatment on Friday night and by 11 pm Jonathan started hydration with his chemo starting around 1 am on Saturday morning.

This weekend also happened to be the 4th of July weekend and I remember Gabby saying that we sure know how to pick our holiday weekends for Jonathan's treatment.  For some reason I wasn't too disappointed that it was a holiday weekend - because I was thinking that we'll be out by Monday (Independence Day) and that most of us would have been able to go and see the fireworks.  Little did I know that this would not come to pass.

The weekend went well - and this had been my longest stay in the hospital.  I stayed Thursday night - went to work on Friday (late) morning and then stayed from Friday night until Tuesday morning.  For the most part it was a good stay.  I didn't go crazy : ) except by Monday afternoon I was getting tired and needed a break.  I think the 'bad' thing I do when I'm staying at the hospital is that I never leave to go outside.  I stay by Jonathan's side all the time and even if we go to the cafeteria - Jonathan goes with me.  So when I do go outside - I feel like - wow - outside looks so different.

The stay at the hospital was interesting.  We started Friday night with my getting assertive with the resident doctor.  Apparently the orders that were written for Jonathan got misplaced and so the set of drugs he normally receives for handling nausea and the other side-effects of chemo were severely reduced.  Of course when a parent tells a doctor that the patient (Jonathan) should get these drugs - and the drugs are not listed in the orders - I am met with some disbelieve.  Unfortunately the resident was new, and I was tired, so I had limited patience on being nice this time.  Plus, I've noticed that if you are too nice - then they want to take advantage of you - so it's better to bring the heat on quickly so they can respond faster.  By Saturday morning both issues were resolve and we were on our way to an uneventful weekend.

The nice thing about this weekend stay is that Stanford had a fireworks display on Sunday night so we were allowed to go to the roof and watch the display.  I remember when I first found out that there was going to be a fireworks display - it was from one of the security guards.  The only problem was that the code patients normally used to go up to the roof was not working - because it was after daylight hours - and nobody else on the ward new about any fireworks display.  Thankfully I was persistent and having checked my information multiple times I finally convinced one of the nurses to take us up.  While we were hanging out on the roof we met another security guard who confirmed that there was going to be fireworks - so this was one occasion I was glad I was very persistent : ).

We all enjoyed it - both Gabby and Arielle was there - although it was not as spectacular as a real 4th of July event - it was still worthwhile to see.  Initially, Arielle was afraid of the fireworks but she quickly calmed down and enjoyed it.  For the first time ever - Jonathan enjoyed fireworks.  I guess since we were not close to the fireworks to hear the noise of the fireworks going off - it was easier for him to handle.

Jonathan has finished his sixth round of chemo on Tuesday morning - around 1 am and he is staying an extra day or two while the hospital sorts out getting blood pressure equipment (with the insurance company) so we can check his blood pressure at home.  We suspect that he'll probably go home today (Wednesday) and will continue to be on blood pressure medicine for the a while.  I'm hoping that when the rest of his results come in by the end of the week - we'll have a better idea as to the cause - because right now the medical team does not know what is cause of the high blood pressure.  At least - if we don't find the cause - that the problem goes away as quickly as it came.