Back to Seton Central

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Back to Seton today, same walk down the hall way down to the elevators but then only up to 1st floor. Checked in to pre op. This is where they do all the pre op and post op for the whole hospital, anything from small things to brain surgery.

Waiting in the room and this guy comes in - Mark. He has to draw some blood and put in IV. He was talking a lot about where is the best place to put the IV AND that he is the BEST to put it in. Mark put the needle in but didn't get it right away but fairly quickly it was all there. Aj was pulling some faces that it was annoying pain, Mark said that once he was done he could let the hand down and it would feel better.
Mark left and we were sitting there and Aj is cursing the IV, says it hurts... After about 10-15 min the other nurse Anne comes in and we tell her it hurts and then she says, I didn't know he was putting one in. Let me double check... comes back and says its not needed and pulls it out. To Aj's joy :) But  then it starts hurting and he has a small bump where Mark put in the IV instead. Not terrible, just like an annoying pain, that didn't have to be there at all. They also kept him from eating, which we think was a mistake.. urghh :) He couldn't eat until the procedure was done, but I think that the Seton when they called him yesterday and did the pre reg, didn't know what he had done, they thought it was surgery... and then they can't eat after midnight. So the whole morning until about 2 pm he didn't eat anything. I think he was hungry too when he was reacting about the IV, but totally understandable.

He got rolled in to this room where I took the pictures and little film clip. Laid on the table and they took the xray before they did the spinal tap with chemo.  The nurse said it was a very small amount they put in since they are targeting the bone marrow directly.The drug they injected is called Methotrexate. Afterwards he had to lay flat for about 2 hours so that he wouldn't get spinal head ache which they say can be really painful.
After that we went home and he's been taking it easy in bed after that. He is feeling ok, took a few nausea tablets when we got home. He says that he is not feeling super sick more 'just' toxic. Seems like its just weird feeling, not a feeling of normal and not super bad.... But his mood is great and he is positive about it all.


I sent a message down to MD Anderson to see if they had received the other slides or blocks from Seton, but Valerie (nurse) responded that they hadn't got any apart from on the 19th of Feb. I called Michelle in Pathology at Seton and she said she had sent unstained slides the day after we had spoken, which would be Tuesday. I hope that is the case, just have to see next week when Amira is back in office (Dr. Fayad's nurse).


As you can see his hair is coming out more and more. I think we are going to get the clippers out tomorrow to make it shorter so its less noticeable. He is not bothered by it, honestly. He looks really good in general, his weight today showed 157 lbs, but that was with all his clothes on, so I think more or less the same as last time 153 lbs. I am very happy with that, as long as it doesn't go down its fine with me.
Aj eats all the time just like he always has. He is eating everything and anything :) - while he was in doing treatment, I went to Central Market to get a loaf of bread and some other things that he likes. It was a massive loaf of french boule bread. He ate the WHOLE thing in post op room!!! Talk about dough in your belly :) :) :)


Tomorrow morning we are heading to Seton NW for a Neulasta shot, that has to be taken within 72 hours of the Chop and we weren't done in time today to make it to Dr. H's office. Its just a quick shot, but its the one that gives the aches and pains in the bones. This time we have the meds prepared for it so lets see what happens. Fingers crossed!