All of the hype they’d warned us about is hitting. I (Julia) am writing so the avid fans won’t worry, but I won’t pretend to have the gift of blog that John has.
Yesterday (Day +7) it was apparent his energy was waning but we mixed up his routine as well. Justin deserved a little father-son time so he took the early shift. We passed off the visitation baton and I stuck around until bedtime. John’s motions had slowed somewhat and he was having trouble getting comfortable…too hot, then too cold. His power-walking around the nurse’s station had turned into a necessary dragging of the IV pole for 30 minutes. My phases of how he’s feeling are “chipper John,” “cranky John” and “mellow man.” He’d definitely hit mellow today. No cantankerous spunk, I blew it, I should have asked for a swell piece of jewelry or something, he would probably have said “yes” without thinking. Dr. Mikhael still felt all was going as planned which is good, but obviously the effects of no immune system were here.
This morning (Day +8) he was still running a slight fever and feeling worse. His tongue is swollen and sore. The rawness has also hit his throat and the headache continues. He has no energy to read or even really watch TV today. We left him rest until early afternoon and then the “decent of the clowns” hit Mayo’s 4th Floor. This was Jason’s first visit as he’d been fighting a cold since the day John was admitted. He collected his mask, proceeded to sanitize and enter room 61. Now the boys have been apart for nearly two weeks so the giddy energy and sibling rivalry is still sparking between them. Justin decides he can’t miss out the fun and since he’d complained that the sunlight was giving him a headache on the drive up he might be contagious of something as well and needed to enter with a mask too. Upon entering the room they immediately spied the stack of latex glove boxes. The masked avengers were giggling over the fun of flicking the rubber gloves and hand dancing to the sounds of Rick James' "SuperFreak" on XM when in walks John’s most adorable teenage-looking nurse and silence hit the room. Suddenly they decided visiting ol’ Dad wasn’t such a bad thing. Oh, what I would have given to have a video running on this take of “Dumb and Dumber Go to The Mayo”.
The fever continued to climb but Team Mayo sprang into action. At 3:30 his temp was 99.0. By 4:10 it had jumped to 101.5 and rising. This wasn’t a surprise. Through all of the pre-transplant education, we knew to expect this as much as John adamantly insisted it wouldn’t happen to him. Nurse Emily was right there keeping tabs, posting orders for x-rays, labs, medication and providing ice packs and cool towels. It’s now rest and wait to see what might be causing this little blip. This is why we pay the big bucks to stay at Hotel Mayo. I’m convinced it’s just John’s way of getting his money’s worth.
I’m hoping the antibiotics and rest will allow me to turn the keyboard back over to “the man” tomorrow. -- Julia
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