Yesterday, Jamie received her fourth and final dose of post transplant chemotherapy. Unfortunately, these treatments have left her with a severely painful and swollen mouth and throat. She is still, rightfully, unwilling to talk and has been directed not to swallow to avoid sending liquid into her lungs. It’s this mouth and throat pain that’s really hitting her hard right now and there’s not much that can be done outside of managing the pain and waiting for her to recover on her own. The doctor do believe the pain should start lessening within the next few days, so we continue to pray for strength so that she is able to push through this very rough patch.
Chemotherapy is a very powerful thing and quite incomprehensible until you experience it first hand. The pain Jamie is experiencing now is an expected side effect of the chemotherapy and has nothing to do with the transplant or disease itself. We knew going in for the transplant that it would be difficult and there would be pain, but I don’t think any of us imagined this pain would originate from a swollen mouth and throat due to the chemo. After all, she had this chemo before and while it did give her some wicked back pain and some mouth sores, it wasn’t anywhere near this level of pain.
What we need to continue to focus on is that according to the doctors this pain is expected, will subside, and she’s actually doing very well otherwise. Her lungs are sounding better; the couple of fevers she’s had have minor and manageable; she’s still taking walks; and her blood counts are actually on the rise – .40 from a low of .07 two days ago. On this last point, she did receive a transfusion yesterday, so we’ll need to wait until tomorrow’s blood results to see whether the increase in counts is sustained, but at this stage we should start seeing it rise daily. It’s all about monitoring and managing her recovery from here on out.
Today was new rotation day at the hospital and we learned that Jamie was not assigned to the doctor she had been consulting with prior to her admission earlier in the month. You see, doctors at Moffitt work on two week rotations and the rotation for the doctor she was seeing ( and really liked) was just ending as Jamie was being admitted. Jamie was pretty bummed about that, but looked forward to her return on the 28th when it was alluded that she would be her physician from that point until the time she was mostly likely released from the hospital. Unfortunately, we learned today that she was assigned to the other side of the BMT wing and would not be her acting physician. Even so, she has come by to check up on her, but Jamie was really upset about this news. Her new doctor seems pretty nice and knowledgeable, but it’s understandable that she would have preferred someone she was familiar with, especially now when she’s feeling the worst.
One final tidbit of news, her hair has started falling out, so this afternoon she has an appointment for someone from the salon (yes, this hospital pretty much has everything) to come up to her room and shave her head. I’m sure she’s a bit bummed about that since her hair had just started coming back, but she did tell me way back in June when all of this began that she considered losing her hair was a minimal thing. “I’m not vain”, she told me.
For today’s prayer assignment, pray for healing of the mouth and throat pain and for her continued strength and endurance through this rough patch. As always thank you for your concerns, support, and prayers!
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Thanks for the continued updates and prayer requests! Hang in there Jamie, we are praying for you!
Lord, we pray Your will be done. Lord, we ask You give our dear friend, Jamie, comfort. Ease her pain. Lay your healing hands on her throat and mouth. Relieve her of those hurts and pains. Bring her back to her loving family. Lord, YOU are indeed the Great Physician. We ask You make your presence known to Jamie, her mom, her husband and her two children. Give them peace and comfort that You are in control.
Amen