Into the Belly of the Beast – or is it the Valley of the Shadow of Death?

Today I have entered the room in which I will live for the next 3+ weeks.  Room 782 in the Feldberg building of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.  Guests must sterilize everything and wear latex gloves.  Initially Barbie was wearing a mask, which made her very hot.  But Dr Levine came in and he was not wearing a mask, so Barbie asked if it was required.  He said it was not, as long as she did not have a cold.

Here are Barbie & I just after we arrived at the hospital:

As you can see, a dramatic reduction in hair in the last week.

Moving in was not a trivial event.  We had to wash, dry, & pack in plastic bags all clothing I wanted to have available.  Any slippers had to be “new”.  You are allowed a laptop & cellphone, but they had to be wiped down with sterilizing towels.  Books and magazines don’t need any special treatment, as apparently germs are not carried by paper.  My body was the item that had the most treatment.  I was under instruction to take a hibiclens shower Thursday night and Friday morning.  Well, when I went to find the hibiclens (a special anti-bacterial soap) Thursday night, it was nowhere to be found.  I distinctly remember leaving it on the edge of our tub.  But it wasn’t there.  Then we remembered that I had to take a morning shower the last time I was admitted to the hospital, on 10/3.  We had to get there early, so we stayed over at Brian & Bridget’s.  So that was where the hibiclens ended up.  So I substituted antiseptic wipes for hibiclens. We went to a play Thursday night in Lowell, so on the way back we stopped at a CVS and bought yet more hibiclens.  So this morning I took a full hibiclens shower.  Then when I arrived here at Feldberg 7, they had me wash my chest with a special anti-bacterial soap.  Not hibiclens, but the same active ingredient.  Eventually, when the surgeon was ready to do the line insertion, he did yet more cleaning of the area.  So, I who am not normally so clean, am spick & span clean now.

The big event today was the insertion of a sub-clavian line.  That is a line that goes in under your clavicle.  And the line follows a vein all the way to the blood vessel right by your heart, the vena cava.  A surgeon came in and turned my room into an operating theatre.  He administered novacain to my right shoulder/chest, so I didn’t really feel anything.  He explained that someone in the 50’s came up with the idea of inserting a flexible wire into the vein you want, and then putting a larger tube in over the wire.  Finally, you take out the wire, and you have the tube where you want it to be.  When it was all done, they took an x-ray to confirm it was in the right place.  They brought in a portable x-ray machine, so I didn’t have to go out into the germy world.  The x-ray showed the tube looping around and going all the way into my chest, right by my heart.  It feels generally sore there, but I am now receiving fluids through it, so it must be working fine.

Here is the view from my window on a sunny day:

Here is a bald guy pointing at the calendar:

Barbie gets credit for the photos.  She is documenting the process.

And here is a view of the room itself:

A nice room, but pretty small for a 3+ week stay.

Dr Levine came by to see if everything was OK.  We got talking, and he mentioned that places like The Mayo Clinic do stem cell transplants in an out-patient clinic.  They have the patients very close to the hospital, and they monitor them every day.  Should they get an infection, they admit them into the hospital and take appropriate measures.  But if not, they stay as out-patients and cost less.  When the insurance companies force the Boston hospitals on the issue, then the BI will adjust their policies.  Meanwhile, the in-patient procedure is safer.  So being a prisoner is a good thing.

So far nothing foreign has been introduced into my body, except for the plastic tube in my vein.  Tomorrow morning, probably around 9AM they will start the chemo.  Melphalan is an aggressive drug that attacks all fast-dividing cells.  I will get it tomorrow and Sunday.  Then a day of rest.  Tuesday they will reintroduce my stem cells.  So all this lies ahead, in the near future.  I am apprehensive, but hopeful that they can mitigate the nastiest side effects.  Time will tell…