Hi all –
Well this was quite the week. Grandpa went into the hospital in Boston on Monday night to begin his chemo-light treatment, and I was able to get over to the hospital right after completing my Monday run around 6pm. I brought him some flowers, but it turns out flowers are clandestine for chemo patients because they’re generally neutropenic – which is just a big word to say that their immune systems are compromised. Flowers or plants, whether fresh or dried, aren’t allowed because of the risk of infection. They didn’t actually take them away from his room until Thursday or so though, so he got to enjoy them for a little while.
The treatment overall went well. It’s chemo-light, so it’s a drug called decitabine. He starts a cycle every 8 hours (he had to do 9 cycles between Monday night and Thursday night, being discharged this morning), and each cycle lasts about 3 hours, so he has a blissful 5 hours in between them where he can disconnect from the lines and actually get up and walk around for awhile. Though usually during those times doctors would be in and out or the nurses would be around to check on him, we did get to take some walks around the hospital.
Speaking of the doctors and nurses, the care was exceptional. I mean truly outstanding. If you have to stay at Brigham and Women’s hospital in Boston, oncology floor 5B is the best place to be. I was with him in the hospital all day every day, and I can tell you these people are exceptional at their jobs and worked so hard for us. Every person on the medical staff was helpful, patient, kind, thorough, and answered every single question we had (and there were a lot). I truly can’t say enough how great they are, and we count ourselves very lucky to have had them by our side. Beyond the care they provided, the nurses all completely fell in love with Grandpa. They were fighting over who got to have him as their patient – which is not surprising, everyone loves him. He made everyone laugh and got to know the nursing staff very well, including all about their family lives, where they went to school, what they studied, what their hobbies are, their religious backgrounds, most of their ages, etc. Hell I wouldn’t be surprised if he got some of their weights, since he was referring to some of them as “plump”, “round”, or “sea urchin” depending on their shape. Only he can get away with shit like that and still be completely lovable.
Throughout the week, I also learned a lot about cancer and the treatments, and about kidneys (Grandpa was treated almost as much for his kidney troubles as he was for the AML). For instance, the way chemo works is to destroy any rapidly producing cells. That’s why a lot of cancer patients’ hair falls out, because hair is a rapidly producing cell. They also are at risk for mouth sores, because the cells on the inside of the mouth are rapidly producing. The chemo drugs aren’t smart enough yet to pinpoint just the cancerous cells, so the research they’re performing at Dana Farber is to get the drugs developed to the point where they can target the cancerous cells only.
Speaking of the research, research is the key component to finding a cure. The funds raised by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society go toward funding research grants, stocking labs, etc. If you were maybe waiting for your paycheck to clear or to get a few bills paid, now would be a great time to donate to the cause. You can do that by clicking here: http://pages.teamintraining.org/nyc/rnr10/rmasterman. I’m up to $2494, which is just $406 away from the minimum! Every dollar OVER the minimum goes 100% to the LLS mission, so if you have the spare cash, please feel free to toss a little to the cause.
Real quickly I wanted to do some shout-outs this week:
The entire nursing staff on 5B at BWH: we could not have gotten through this week without you. You are second to none – I hope you know how much your work is appreciated.
Gain: Nicole (who I affectionately call by her last name) let me crash at her wonderful North End apartment all week this week, sharing her bed and her 20 minutes-at-a-time of hot water. Gain, you are the best, thank you for being so generous.
And most importantly, to my Grandpa himself: Grandpa, you are truly an inspiration to me. You are just the best person I’ve ever met and getting to spend so much time with you this week was wonderful for me. I would’ve given anything for the circumstances to be different, you not having been in a hospital bed hooked up to IVs, but the quality time was a very special gift that is better than anything on this earth. I hope you know how special you are to me, how much I adore you, how much I want to be like you, how much I appreciate you, how much I respect you, and how much I love you. I am a better person for having you in my life.
As always, thank you to everyone for the love and support.
Love,
Rachel
Well this was quite the week. Grandpa went into the hospital in Boston on Monday night to begin his chemo-light treatment, and I was able to get over to the hospital right after completing my Monday run around 6pm. I brought him some flowers, but it turns out flowers are clandestine for chemo patients because they’re generally neutropenic – which is just a big word to say that their immune systems are compromised. Flowers or plants, whether fresh or dried, aren’t allowed because of the risk of infection. They didn’t actually take them away from his room until Thursday or so though, so he got to enjoy them for a little while.
The treatment overall went well. It’s chemo-light, so it’s a drug called decitabine. He starts a cycle every 8 hours (he had to do 9 cycles between Monday night and Thursday night, being discharged this morning), and each cycle lasts about 3 hours, so he has a blissful 5 hours in between them where he can disconnect from the lines and actually get up and walk around for awhile. Though usually during those times doctors would be in and out or the nurses would be around to check on him, we did get to take some walks around the hospital.
Speaking of the doctors and nurses, the care was exceptional. I mean truly outstanding. If you have to stay at Brigham and Women’s hospital in Boston, oncology floor 5B is the best place to be. I was with him in the hospital all day every day, and I can tell you these people are exceptional at their jobs and worked so hard for us. Every person on the medical staff was helpful, patient, kind, thorough, and answered every single question we had (and there were a lot). I truly can’t say enough how great they are, and we count ourselves very lucky to have had them by our side. Beyond the care they provided, the nurses all completely fell in love with Grandpa. They were fighting over who got to have him as their patient – which is not surprising, everyone loves him. He made everyone laugh and got to know the nursing staff very well, including all about their family lives, where they went to school, what they studied, what their hobbies are, their religious backgrounds, most of their ages, etc. Hell I wouldn’t be surprised if he got some of their weights, since he was referring to some of them as “plump”, “round”, or “sea urchin” depending on their shape. Only he can get away with shit like that and still be completely lovable.
Throughout the week, I also learned a lot about cancer and the treatments, and about kidneys (Grandpa was treated almost as much for his kidney troubles as he was for the AML). For instance, the way chemo works is to destroy any rapidly producing cells. That’s why a lot of cancer patients’ hair falls out, because hair is a rapidly producing cell. They also are at risk for mouth sores, because the cells on the inside of the mouth are rapidly producing. The chemo drugs aren’t smart enough yet to pinpoint just the cancerous cells, so the research they’re performing at Dana Farber is to get the drugs developed to the point where they can target the cancerous cells only.
Speaking of the research, research is the key component to finding a cure. The funds raised by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society go toward funding research grants, stocking labs, etc. If you were maybe waiting for your paycheck to clear or to get a few bills paid, now would be a great time to donate to the cause. You can do that by clicking here: http://pages.teamintraining.org/nyc/rnr10/rmasterman. I’m up to $2494, which is just $406 away from the minimum! Every dollar OVER the minimum goes 100% to the LLS mission, so if you have the spare cash, please feel free to toss a little to the cause.
Real quickly I wanted to do some shout-outs this week:
The entire nursing staff on 5B at BWH: we could not have gotten through this week without you. You are second to none – I hope you know how much your work is appreciated.
Gain: Nicole (who I affectionately call by her last name) let me crash at her wonderful North End apartment all week this week, sharing her bed and her 20 minutes-at-a-time of hot water. Gain, you are the best, thank you for being so generous.
And most importantly, to my Grandpa himself: Grandpa, you are truly an inspiration to me. You are just the best person I’ve ever met and getting to spend so much time with you this week was wonderful for me. I would’ve given anything for the circumstances to be different, you not having been in a hospital bed hooked up to IVs, but the quality time was a very special gift that is better than anything on this earth. I hope you know how special you are to me, how much I adore you, how much I want to be like you, how much I appreciate you, how much I respect you, and how much I love you. I am a better person for having you in my life.As always, thank you to everyone for the love and support.
Love,
Rachel
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