All Creatures Great & Small

It's the end of another week filled with preparations for Arnie's stem cell transplant. We met with the attending physician and our team nurse at the clinic on Wednesday for our 'data review session'. All Arnie's tests have come back. His heart, lung, liver and kidney function is good. His cancer is in remission. There is no evidence of cancer in his bone marrow or cerebral spinal fluid (fluid around his brain). No evidence of cancer on the CT scan or MRI. In fact he is the picture of health, except the medical team expects the cancer will come back again just like it has several times before. The goal of the stem cell transplant is to change Arnie's immune system to keep his cancer in check.

Arnie had a 'Hickman catheter' placed on Thursday. It is a large IV line that goes under the skin of his chest wall and threads its way into the right side of his heart via the jugular vein. This catheter will stay in place until we leave Seattle. Arnie will get all his chemo, IV fluids and IV drugs and most important his new stem cells through this line. The majority of his blood work can be drawn off this line as well. Hallelujah!!! Arnie was beginning to feel like a gigantic black & blue pin cushion. Dr. Hickman, who developed this line, practiced at the SCCA and just early retired this fall at age 83!! Arnie was a little sore after the line placement, but was otherwise fine. Today we learned how to care for the line at home. We discovered the tips of the line fit securely into a little knitted Sasktel cell phone case Arnie can wear around his neck.

We had a few days of free time earlier in the week to enjoy some pre-transplant tourism. The SCCA clinic gave us 2 free passes to visit the aquarium. Arnie learned about octopus mating and I got to pet a starfish. In typical Arnie fashion when the aquarium staff mentioned that the new eel fish hadn't eaten in the two weeks since it had arrived, he suggested they try the animals favorite food, sea urchin. They will add them to the menu on Monday. We also visited the zoo. It was quite cool that day, so we saw a wide variety of African and Asian animals huddling to keep warm. I thought the hippo's hind end was very impressive and I was able to piece together the lyrics for the Kookaburra song we learned in elementary school. (Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree.....) Once Arnie becomes immunocompromised next week; these two venues will be off limits for a full year.

Arnie and I have been walking a couple of miles each day to get a feel for our neighbourhood. We've seen pansies in bloom in sheltered planters. Yesterday I saw our first daffodils and tulips in bloom, again in selected warm sheltered locations. The other day we walked by the windows of a business crowded with computer-filled work cubicles. A sign posted on the window read "Please don't feed the geeks."

Take care.
Arnie & Brenda