The 27th day started much the same as the rest but with the final stem cell as the aim. The usual rehabilitation started at 8 am, Owen arriving on time and Jill again sitting looking like a pin cushion when all the Doctors in the hospital descended on our room. Believe it or not we had eight doctors and two interpreters; there was hardly any room to move around Jill’s bed. One of the younger doctors had to bring the very head doctor up to date on Jill’s treatment while everyone else listen on. Jill had a quizzical look on her face that he finally picked up on and asked if there was something she would like to know. She answered “What were you saying about me” and they all laughed as he explained. The second head doctor spoke to me about Jill’s sleep apnoea and suggested it would be important to use a CPAT machine to help her breath and to keep her oxygen levels up during the night which would also be beneficial to the stem cells and to Jill’s energy levels during the day. Jill had breakfast and lunch together as she was not allowed eating or drinking anything after 11am in preparation for the stem cells. The nurse that came to put Jill’s IV in said that Jill would be earlier than expected as one of the other patients had developed a fever. The next thing was to find a compatible vein to put the IV into. I again wish I was Jill as it is hard to watch her go through the prodding with needles. To no avail she finally gave up and went away shaking her head. Several minutes later she appeared with another nurse and the procedure started all over again. Finally they had Jill lay down on the bed and one massaged her arm and in Chinese said “Eureka- I have found One” or something like that. About 1.30 a nurse came and hooked the IV up to a glucose solution, after another visit to the toilet Jill was ready to be wheeled away. At 2.10pm Jack and one of the male nurses took Jill upstairs to the theatre. I sat down and had some lunch and expected Jill back in about 30 minutes based on the other injections. After an hour had passed I was starting to become concerned and I went out into the passage and walked to the base of the stairs to the ninth floor. Looking up I could see a bed with Jack beside it. I convinced myself that it was the next patient and they were waiting for Jill to come out. A couple of minutes passed and a bed was pushed out of the theatre and I assumed it was Jill. It disappeared down the passage towards the lift. I moved down the passage towards where she would come back down to Level 8. No one appeared and I went back and up the stairs to see where she was. Jack met me at the top of the stairs and explained that there had been a problem with the previous patient and that Jill had just gone in. She had been waiting for over an hour. I waited at the foot of the steps and spoke to Joanna (Al’s wife). Finally Jill appeared (30 min) and was wheeled back to the room followed by a nurse who took Jill’s temperature and BP and to our surprise her BP was slightly elevated. Over the next few hours they kept checking her temperature and BP. Finally the BP was back to normal and I am guessing that she had been quite concerned as the time had gone by. They had also had problem with the IV line and her arm started to swell so they had to relocate it. Apparently they proceeded with the Stem cell injection using a local injection instead of the valium through the IV. Back in our room she was awake and alert but it wasn’t long and she was dozing off and over the next couple of hours she slept on and off. Drink time arrived then eat time and finally 10pm and she was able to get up and go to the toilet. She sat on the lounge, ate some more had her various medicines and the off to bed . This morning I woke early, had a shower before Jill was awake. With our schedule for today set she had to be up and showered.
See you tomorrow on the net.
