Getting There

Today is the best day yet, it it before 9am and I am out of bed...upright, actually in a chair. this is big. i havent gotten sick for the past 2 days, and i am off the nausea meds. my WBCs are up to 1600 today!! and im waiting for them to take me off the antibiotics that i am on. as soon as i come off those, thats one more step closer to getting out of here. unfortunately, i am still being fed through TPN (a big bag of yellow stuff that goes directly through my IV) but im hoping to come off that today as well. lots of hopes i know, but i am at the city of hope...
my doctor has the day off and im waiting for his partner to come talk to me, give me some kind of timeline as to when i can go home. ive never wanted to do anything more than go home! i miss my family so much, especially jack, he's leaving on the 9th to join the coast guard and i wont see him for so long!!

anyways, i really have a good feeling about this chemo, it obviously did something if it made me this sick. i am anxious already to start the second round and put this whole experience behind me. but thats still a few months away.

thank you so much for reading my blog, sorry i dont update it more. ill work on it!

carpe diem.

Day +8

well this proces officially sucks. i have been so sick to my stomach since the last post that i havent even been able to sit up in bed...except of course to vomit. today the sun is shining...a little. its 11 and ive only gotten sick twice. also, my counts are coming up. my WBCs are 600(normal people have about 14000) so i am starting to recover. dr forman confined me to my room, which is fine since i cant get out of bed anyways. they are going to keep a close eye on me throughout the weekend and if i start to eat on my own and have no fevers then i will be sent home early next week!! ( im hoping for monday)

thank you all for the phone calls and love. i cant wait to see you!!

xoxo carpe diem

Happy Xmas Eve

Here we are, at the city of hope on dec 24. the last few days have been pretty bad. ive been sick pretty much all the day long, nasea and fever and other unmentionables. so needless to say, the days are long. my favorite part of my day is when the nurses unhook me from the 7 cords attached to my body and let me go walk around. there is a beautiful rose garden and koi pond, sooo pretty. so ive been getting some sunshine, trying to keep my spirits up. i have to admit though, it really is hard to be smiley and happy all the time. but im working on it.
all the nurses are great, very attentive and they will give you whatever you want. the food sucks here, and ive been too naseous to eat it anyways so now they have me on whats called TPN, its basically fat, vitamins, and nutrients in a huge bag that goes straight into my viens. its also yellow. sweet!

so tomorrow is xmas and i want to wish you all the best xmas ever, lots of fun and happiness!! i will post again soon.

ps-i apologize to those that have called me and i havent called them back yet, im woking on it, i swear.

carpe diem

DAY ZERO

I got my stem cells back today, and they call this day zero. so i should be out of here soon...relatively speaking. i havent had any side efects from the chemo...yet. they are keeping me well medicated to try and prevent the side effects though. we'll see.
getting my stem cells back was a weird experience. i they were frozen before i got them so i could feel the coldness going through my veins. also, i now emenate (i dont know how to spell, ad blogger doesnt have spell check) a strong odor of garlic/creamed corn because of the chemicals used to treat the cells. they say it should go away in a bout 2 days. im sure my mom is so stoked.
anways, i am very sleepy and going to take a nap...

love you all!!

carpe diem

City of Hope Day #1

Well, i am here. yay. i got checked in at about 330 on tues and was started on hydration right away. my mom and i hung out, watched tv and a movie and went to sleep really early. it was a rough night of sleep, our room doesnt exactly get dark, the nurses came in every 2 hours to check my vitals and since i had a low grade fever, they had to draw lots of blood cultures. so needless to say, it wasnt a very restful night. i woke up this morning and felt good though, strong, ready to get some chemo in me! dr forman came in early this morning and checked up on me. he is so awesome. so...i got tons of pre-meds which are medications that they give me before chemo to prevent/reduce any side effecets i might have. i had 2 blood transfusions before i got chemo. around 12 i got my chemo, it was only a 15 minute drip! how crazy! then i just got back from a ct scan and i am off the hook for the day! tomorrow i will get my stem cells back and start physical therapy! how exciting!

i miss everyone already and i hope you all have a greatest xmas!! feel free to email/facebook... *(jennanewburn@gmail.com)

carpe diem

new news

So...new plan of attack. I am having a tandem (yes double) transplant instead of the standard transplant. My doctor really feels more confident in doing the tandem, so I can't really argue with him. I will go in to COH on tues dec 19 and stay for about 2 weeks. I will have one day of chemo, one day of gettting my stem cells back, and then almost two weeks of recovery. then i will come home for about 3-4 weeks, go back to COH and stay for around 17 days, geting more chemo and more of my stem cells back. So i will be done with everything around march or so. im really bummed that the process has be be dragged out but dr forman thinks that this procedure has a better chance of getting rid of the hodgkins for good. he wants to do the tandem because my hodgkins is so damn strong and persistant that he just feels that doubling up will work better.

you gotta do whatcha gotta do, right? i know that i can get through it, i just have to want it badly enough. i am nervous about how sick i will feel but i know that they have some pretty good drugs out there that will make my life alot better. i wish that i could have friends and family visit me while im there (only my parents and jack are allowed) but i will have my computer and cel phone so i wont be totally cut off.

i hope everyone continues to think healthy thoughts and know that i will get through this and be healthy soon!

carpe diem

Dates

So I've gotten lots of postive feedback from the blog idea, so i will continue with it. I spoke with my doctor at the City of Hope and I will be going in for my stem-cell transplant on Dec 18. Ill be there about 30 days. im really excited to get the process started because that means that i will be that much closer to being healthy. I also met with the radaiton oncologist today, the one who will be giving me radiation, and i liked him also. he was a bit worried about giving me total body radiation because they are not sure what the outcome will be as far as my stomach problems go. they are not sure if it will make them better or worse, and if it does become worse, it will be much worse. so he is worried about whether or not to to TBR or localized radiation. both have drawbacks and positives, so i have to wait, again, to hear from them. waiting is pretty much all i do...oh well.
on a more positive note, i went to visit my friends in santa barbara on tues and had the best time ever. i miss being at school so much and it was so good to know that all my friends havent forgotten about me. :) i cant wait to be healthy and get back to school. i need to focus on that, and i will become healthy.

carpe diem

Post #1

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to this blogger thing, but it seems like a pretty good idea. I will be going into the hospital soon and this seems like an easier way for me to update you all on my progress. So today is Monday and I am waiting patiently for a call from my doctor. She is going to tell me when I will be going in to the City of Hope for my stem-cell transplant and she will also be telling me if I need to go back to St Johns for another round of chemo first. I really hope I dont have to go back to St Johns, if I do, it pushes the stem cell transplant back by about 3 weeks. I am ready to get this all over with and move on with my life, and I want it to happen as soon as possible.
I am feeling pretty good today, very strong.

I will post on this any time i get an update from my doc or from myself!!