Holy cow are we spoiled in Spokane.
All of our out-patient care is conducted at SCCA (Seattle Cancer Care Alliance), which is affiliated with The Hutch, on The Hutch campus. We had our first day of stuff at SCCA, today. The place is BUSY! Crowded, cramped, small spaces. I had a general feeling of over stimulation. Today we had general registration, history, physical, exam, vitals, blood draw, meeting the Attending and Primary docs. General orientation, tour. A HUGE blood draw.
Everything is located on different floors, too. Lab on one, transfusions on another and clinic on yet another. The major difference is that this is not strictly pediatric. That is what is so......... adult cancer is so different. I think we saw one other pediatric patient, today. The transplant staff is divided into teams. There are 10 (ten) Adult Transplant teams. How many pediatric teams? 1 (ONE) Soak that up for a minute. One. Walking into the peds onc clinic at Sacred Heart Childrens is so awesome. We have left Kansas. Which does not change our level of care. I will grow attached to it. It will find it's way into my being and take root. It will just take a little longer. I was thinking about our long distance treatment, the other day and I am grateful that Gregory's intense treatment will occur away from our home hospital. This experience has been removed from all that he knows as home and comfort. There will be limited PTSD type reactions with Sacred Heart Children's. We will do our long term follow up there and I'm glad it will remain a place of comfort for him. These experiences get to stay at this location.
The Greginator is a hero. You already knew that, though.
Todays counts!!!!!!!!!!! Man, the lab at SCCA is FAST! Hematocrit: 31 / Platelets: 40 / White Cells: 9.46 / Red Cells: 4.12
His counts are increasing. Not quite sure what this means. I don't know if it is because his system is still working overtime due to the lingering bronchitis. *shrug* Somethings just will not have an explanation. They simply are what they are. His bronchitis is still hanging on, therefore we are back on respiratory isolation. Which I'm OK with. It almost elliminates his contact with bacteria/virus/fungus. It's just too risky. It also means that we are able to eat in our room. You may think that I am nuts to WANT to be isolated. This is so different. This is for Gregory's life. Plain and simple. Pushing the edge of the envelope is not called for, at this time.
Today was long. Tomorrow will be longer. Thursday even longer, still.
Tomorrow: Slated time frame 8:30 arrival at SCCA ~ hopefully complete by 4:15
8:30 ~ Finance Meeting
9:00 ~ Meet with Social Worker (SCCA social worker)
10:00 ~ Meet with Child Life (SCCA child life)
11:00 ~ EKG
12:30 ~ Meet with SCCA nutritionist
2:15 ~ Conference with Dr W & Dr K (attending & primary care)
Oh yeah, we will have a platelet transfusion squeezed in here, too. Somewhere. Somehow.
Thursday:
8:00 Blood draw at SCCA
9:00 ~ Children's Hospital. Bone Marrow Aspiration and Lumbar Puncture under sedation
? ~ Children's Hospital. Chest X-Ray
12:30 ~ Children's Hospital. Echocardiogram
Friday:
9:00 ~ Caregiver classes for me.
10:00 ~ Meet with pharmacist.
11:00 ~ Meet with research RN.
Crazy. Crazy. Crazy. Remember Gregory is 3. (nearly 4) I think Child Life and I are going to be fast friends.
I've gotten my bearings. We have staked out grocery stores, pharmacies, amenities. Still looking for Local Yarn Shop. Of note: Yami is in the grocery store!! Better yet, Yami was on the shelf at the "bistro" at SCCA!!!!!!!!!
I'm sure I've left some holes. Let me know if you have questions. They help me to fill in the blanks.
Thanks tonight are in honor of Sacred Heart Children's Peds Onc Unit & Clinic, again. Can't wait to get home, folks. (I'm not impatient, I just really love everything about you all!)
Psst: Depeche Mode is performing at Key Arena on August 10.
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