Harvest and transplant day

Meet Gerd, Sigve's sister, his stem cell donor. Sigve is the youngest, and Gerd is the third youngest of 7 siblings. She is a keen knitter, and her knitting is never far from her, even in a hospital bed.

In preparation for today she has been giving herself hormone injections twice daily for a few days, to stimulate increased production of stem cells. The effect has been so formidable that her spine and knuckles have been aching with the increased activity.

Gerd started the day with having an iv inserted. At first they tried to insert it into a vein on the side of the neck, but after a lot of digging and probing with no result, they had to give up and try a vein further down on the shoulder. Result: soreness and stiffness in the neck caused by some internal bleeding. Her neck will probably be blue and green for a few days.

Sigve went to visit Gerd in the harvesting room: The two tubes from the iv is one out and one in. Gerd's blood runs out of her, through this machine that separates the stem cells from the rest of the blood, and then back into Gerd. Her whole blood volume goes through the machine 4 times.

This bag contains the already harvested stem cells, about half of what's needed:
Hilde Marie and I went to the café for a break:

Gerd just walked in as I am writing this, so now we wait while the stem cells are being counted to see if enough has been harvested...

All still well, and tomorrow is the big day!

Today has been another good day for Sigve, still without the predicted side effects from the chemo. It's really so amazing and wonderful :-) I know it's an answer to all the prayers, good wishes, happy thoughts and positive energy that have been coming our way! I'm also convinced that Sigve's positive attitude has some say in it. He has been determined since before the treatment started that this will turn out well.

Tomorrow is Day zero, Transplant day. Sigve's sister Gerd, who is his stem cell donor, is in place at the hospital, and ready for action. Many of you probably wonder about how the transplant takes place, and I'll explain all tomorrow as it proceeds, with pictures and all.

I'm staying in the camper van tonight, parked outside Hilde Marie and Jon Helge's house at Tysnes, and I'm driving on to Bergen in the morning.

So far I have not found it hard to put up a brave face as things are going so well, but tonight, sleeping alone in the camper van for the first time ever, feels a little sad... But I am also thinking ahead to all the wonderful trips we are going to have in it once Sigve is well again. Something nice to look forward to!

Today I am grateful for:

*Family

*Seeing Isa again (our little dog that is staying with Hilde Marie and Jon Helge while Sigve is in hospital, and also for a little while after as there can't be animals in the house during his first weeks back at home)

* Venison, yum!

Going well!

This is just a short situation rapport: Sigve tells me via Skype today that he's still feeling fine! This second chemo course that we were told would make everyone nauseous, has not had that effect on Sigve!!! He had a slight twinge of nausea last night, and vomited once, and after that nothing. On the other hand, he's getting even more liquids now and has to visit the little boys' room every 15 minutes. Producing 0.3 litres every 15 mins (everything is measured) has to be some sort of record! It's annoying, but very much preferable to being nauseous.

He was given the last bag of chemo for now tonight, and I'm visualizing that he is feeling and sleeping well.

I went for a beautiful walk by the sea this evening, Listening to the waves and watching (another) amazing sunset is peaceful. However, I find that I see great photo opportunities all over the place, so I get easily distracted. One of the amazing things about sunsets is that every time you think it has to be at it's most beautiful, it keeps getting even better. And of course it changes all the time so you could take hundreds of pictures of one.

Half an hour later it had changed to this:

Today I am grateful for:

*Sigve feeling well

*A good camera and nature providing great photo opportunities

*Skype

A fun day :-)

Today was a fun day. Sigve was feeling very well, the amount of liquids he's been getting has been reduced so he slept better last night. Jon Helge and Hilde Marie were working, but when they had finished loading up the truck they came for a visit at the hospital, and we spent a great day together, the 5 of us. Here we are, off to the café for lunch:

Sigve was playing around, cracking jokes and being his usual self :-) We laughed a lot today, which is healthy!
Geir Espen and I got home a couple of hours ago, and I went outside to pick some raspberries. Now I'm on the couch with my feet on the table and enjoying this:
Have you ever tried raspberries with brie? It is very recommendable!

Today I am grateful for:

*Food that tickles my taste buds

*Happy moments

*Togetherness

Have a great week everyone :-)

Waiting...

I don't have any new relevant photos today, but I like this one. Serenity is a word that comes to mind when I look at it. I took it out of the camper van window one early June morning when I happened to wake up very early, at 6.15 am to be exact. We were on our way to Oslo, and had stopped for the night in a favorite spot by the road. Everything was just calm.

*****

These last few days have been all about waiting. Nothing much has happened, and I won't bore you with repetitions. Sigve is still feeling fine, no side effects from the chemo yet, other than the lack of deep quality sleep (which of course is bad enough) due to still having to get up every half hour for a bath room visit.

Tomorrow that second course of chemo starts, and I'm feeling apprehensive about how that will make him feel. Although, I'm visualizing him feeling well, and knowing him I won't be at all surprised if he just casually breezes through it. I know so many people are visualizing this and praying for it. Through "The Lightning Process" I have learned how to think in positive terms, f.ex. in my mind I don't think that "he's not going to be sick", but rather that "he's going to be well". There's a huge difference: in the first case I would focus on sick, and send negative energy, in the second on well, and positive energy.

Sigve himself is a very positive and optimistic person, and he has an amazing ability to accept a situation, turn it around, and make the best of it. I think self pity is an unknown term to him, and gratitude is a very large part of his mentality. It is not possible to feel gratitude and negativity at the same time; one will rule out the other. So it is the choice of each and every one of us, self pity of gratitude, which do I want should dominate my life?

*****

Another picture I like: Life can survive in the most harsh looking conditions. I took this one during a walk on a beach in Bømlo earlier this summer.

And finally, one of us taken by Hilde Marie the evening before we left for Bergen and the hospital. Geir Espen, Hilde Marie, Jon Helge, Sigve and I had a lovely family evening together.

A day at home.

Yesterday afternoon I decided to drive home as Sigve was still feeling fine, but tired. As I reached the Bømlo bridge this sight met me, and I just had to stop and shoot it. In the middle is the Siggjo mountain, Bømlo's signature silhouette. When seen from the other side, from the North See, it can be seen from miles out, and it has been a homing point for ships for hundreds of years.

Back at Haukeland Hospital, Sigve had settled into his room, his new home away from home. It's a very nice single room. The hematological ward has 2 of them, both reserved for stem cell transplant patients. The room has a TV, DVD player, fridge, an exercise bike, and all the usual medical equipment. In about 7-9 days, when his immune system is almost all gone, he will have to start an approx 2 week isolation period, and be confined to this room. He will be able to have visitors, but special precautions have to be taken. I will get back to that when the time comes.

Meet "Hangman"
Hangman is another new companion. He's not as close to Sigve's heart as Hicky, but he has to drag him along anywhere he goes. I suppose everyone have either been attached to one of these at some point, or at least seen one, so I won't describe him in any detail.

At 3 am on his first night, Sigve started on his first bag of chemo. He gets a new one every 6 hours, and they drip in over the 6 hours between. This first course has not given him any discomfort, other than being tired as a side effect from a medication he's given to prevent cramps. As the chemo starts to work, a lot of waste products need to be flushed out, so Hangman provides him with liters of liquids to aid the kidneys in this process. He's also encouraged to drink as much water as he can possibly pour down. This, of course, results in an extreme need to let it all out again. For someone who usually can go a full day without visiting the little boys' room, having to go every half hour, day and night, is quite a challenge. And Hangman has to go too, so he has to be unplugged, and maneuvered between the bed, table and chairs (he has six wheeled legs that stick out in all directions), and into the small bathroom. It also results in very interrupted and unrestful sleep, so that too makes him drowsy during the day.

There is effective medication to prevent nausea for this first chemo course, but not for the second one, given on Sunday and Monday. There is medication to reduce it, but unfortunately not completely eliminate it.

I have spent a lazy day at home today. I did not set the alarm clock last night, so it was past noon before I managed to drag myself out of bed. Laundry was on my to-do list, and I actually got it all done, but otherwise not much. I find I have problems concentrating on what I'm doing, so I start many different jobs, and although multitasking is usually good, trying to do 5 different things at once just leaves a mess when your heart's not in it.

I Skyped with Sigve earlier this evening, and he was still feeling ok. But there is something about being in hospital; I think that even if you don't feel too bad initially, just being there "sickifies" you. I feel it, even as a visitor.

On the first day, before Sigve's room was ready for him, we sat in the lounge area with some other people, patients and relatives, and everyone felt the need to share their story. I found that I don't really need all that negative energy, so I will try to avoid that kind of situation in the future.

" The more attention you pay an enemy (f.ex. disease, IM), the stronger you make him. Be attentive, but don't be paranoiac." Paulo Coelho

Geir Espen and I are going to Bergen tomorrow, after he finishes work, and probably staying for the weekend. Thanks to our wonderful friends Brita and Ketil I have a place to stay whenever I am in Bergen. I'm glad I don't have to stay in a hotel, which is both expensive and impersonal. Good friends are priceless in any circumstance, and especially now!

Introducing "Hicky"

Meet Hicky, Sigve's new very close friend. Hicky will be with him for the duration, and will be used for everything that needs to be administered intravenously. It's easier to se what he looks like now after he's been unwrapped. After Sigve has been discharged from hospital he (or quite possibly we, if I can do it without fainting) will have to learn how to take care of Hicky himself, which includes changing the bandage and rinsing him out weekly with a saline solution to keep him open and happy. The bandage to the right is from the bone marrow test, taken from the sternum. After a local anesthetic they drill through the bone with a tiny hollow drill bit, and suck out some bone marrow. Sometimes they also carve out some of the bone for testing. Yikes... In the future, I promise I won't go much in detail with stuff like that. I can't watch procedures like that, I know I would faint!

Before we left home yesterday we decided to take Sigve's new hair style to the next level, and cropped it even closer. It had actually grown quite a bit since the last trim in Sweden a couple of weeks ago, so he was due for a haircut now :-) In about 3 weeks time it will start falling out anyway, so he decided it's better to lose a little than a lot :-)
Sigve is still looking and feeling well, as I think the picture shows. Doctors and nurses here are surprised that he's so well and have not needed any kind of treatment so far, apparently most people in his situation have already gone through chemo. When I asked a doctor about the hair loss timing, he had to think for a minute, and said most people are already without hair when they get here. And as he has not had any chemo treatment yet, he said, Sigve is a chemo virgin LOL. And he added that that's a good thing, it will work better. The first course of chemo will start at 2 am tonight.

Today has been mostly about waiting. And in between there have been blood tests, bone marrow test and x-rays, and quite a few pills (don't remember what all of them were for, but at least one was to prevent cramping during the first course of chemo). He's also on preventive antibiotics as infections are inevitable, but they still try to avoid them as much as possible.

Time for some dinner!