Day 1: Dad Escaped!

Dad Stats:
Most recent temperature: 97.6F
Most recent blood pressure: 105/53
Today's white blood cell count: 4.86

Weight: 142.7 lb

Wow! What a busy day for Dad and I! I will start with the best news for those that are not crazy about reading more than a few words....Dad has been released from the hospital and is not an outpatient! Dad will go to the clinic every day for until about day 30 to get a checkup on vitals and stats but if his progress is good he will be granted weekend passes and days off.

Now for the meat of the blog. Dad woke up like normal and had a quick bowl of oatmeal and a blueberry muffin. Dad was able to drink up some coffee and orange juice as well. From the very start of the day Dad has been off of the IV so he has had free reign to run around the transplant ward and check out the other transplant patient's posters. I was not able to stay with Dad all day today but as seen in the bottom most picture he was busy writing Maple code for his PHD research. Before the end of the day Dad was able to introduce me to one of the Dr. on the bone marrow ward who started his procedure and I was able to get a quick snapshot. UAB really has one of the most gifted and caring medical staff I have ever been around. It is amazing to see how far out of the way every member of the BMTU would go to see that Dad had the best of care.

As seen above Dad's WBC count is right at the 5 level / normal range. Dad has been eating on his own, snacking, working, snacking and other Dad type stuff.

Around 10:30 or so I left to go check out the Homewood Church of Christ hospital apartments. The apartments are fantastic and well above the expectations I was given.

I met the apartment coordinator, Jane, who let me in and showed me around. She was excellent just like the apartments. I took a few quick snapshots of the apartment. The layout is a kitchen with a small dining room table, a large living room area with a sofa and lazy-boy recliner. There are two bedrooms with two beds in each and every room had its own HVAC unit. The place is great as you can see in the pictures. I went ahead and did the paperwork to get the keys and then headed back to UAB

I was able to return to the hospital a little bit after 12:30 and just walked into the room to Dad packing up his bags. Dad informed me that the ball was rolling on his discharge and that now was the time to pack things up! Unfortunately for me I drove my tiny car down to Birmingham AND parked about 5 blocks away.

We all had no idea that Dad would recover so fast so everybody is scrambling to get things in place. I lugged down one trip of Dad items and headed back to the apartments. It was a real good thing we got the keys to the apartment when we did or Dad would of had to stay at the hospital one more night.

As I was walking down to my car I saw a familiar face driving down 19th Street. John from old MEMS was driving over to meet Dad and he had one of his business partners from Japan. For those of you that remember Dad has a good working relationship with the Japanese company NALUX and has been in touch with Mr. Kitagawa (Kitagawa San) during trials of his illness. I even heard today the Mr. Kitagawa follows the Blog daily! Once again another example of the fantastic friends Dad has. I went to drop off the bags and was able to catch John and Michiahisa San (sorry if there are spelling mistakes) before they left for the day.

The conversation and meeting was good for Dad and he is excited with the possibility of traveling to Japan when he is able to take a dip in the healing waters at an upper elevation spa. John and Michiahisa San brought Dad a gift and a card and wished him a speedy recovery. The hospitalization part of the recovery was pretty speedy because we were out of the hospital within an hour!

Before Dad was able to leave we had to watch a 30 minute movie about the fun side effects of bone marrow transplant. The main thing is that Dad's platelet counts have to get to 50,000 to really be a low risk. Hopefully this week Dad will make up some more cells. Another thing we had to do before we left was get his left side catheter / IV spicket removed. It was interesting to watch how they carefully sniped away the stitches holding the catheter in and then violently rip the tube out. Right before the procedure Dad was told to hold his breath when they went to pull out the tube and he did the exact opposite! Dad took a big gulp of air like he had just jumped off the high dive and then RIP and it was all over. Dad still has the right side hooked up and it will continue to be used during his outpatient procedures.

Another exciting event today is that Mom came down to relieve me for a work function I have in the morning. Mom made it to Birmingham right as we were discharged. Mom had some problems finding the apartment but we eventually got it straightened out. Right not the plan is for Mom to hang out with Dad until Vic can get here at 5:00 tomorrow. Dad is peacefully sleeping right now and I am starting my trip back to Huntsville!