Goodbye for now Alaska

Goodbye Alaska.  Hello Seattle.  I had a great week in at home in Alaska.  I visited my school and all band classes and I visited with some friends at an Anchorage Symphony rehearsal.  It was great to be back but now it’s back to business.  For the next four months, I’ll be in the Emerald City undergoing treatment.  I’ll be getting an Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplant.  

When I started treatment in June, I was completely unaware of the number of tests that I would have go through.  They want to make sure that I’m healthy enough to survive the transplant.  Here’s an example.  My actual schedule for tomorrow is:

7:00 am - Blood Draw

7:45 am - RN Assessment, bed 2 (prep for bone marrow procedure)

8:00 am - Bone Marrow Aspiration Procedure (without sedation)

11:30 am - University of Washington Medical Center, treadmill test (after fasting for 12 hours)

3:30 pm - Rose Team Clinic (with my nurse, physician’s assistant and doctor)

4:30 pm - Dressing change (for the hose coming out of my chest)

All of the morning schedule will be while fasting.  I have a date with a pizza at about 2:00.  The blood draw is almost a daily activity.  The bone marrow aspiration is usually under sedation but my schedule won’t allow that.  They drill a hole into my hip to take a sample of my bone marrow.  I’ve done it twice before.  It hurts.  The treadmill test is new for me.  They are going to take pictures of my heart at different levels of relaxation and exhaustion.  The clinic happens at least once each week and the dressing change is also a weekly event.

In other news, I was able to haul my small “F” tuba to Seattle.  I’ve been practicing a loaner from a tuba player in Bellingham.  My sister borrowed a small “Bb” tuba from a friend.  I don’t know the owner but loaning a tuba to me was one of the kindest things anyone has done since I’ve been here.  But now that I have my own tuba, I’ll be able to play loud and bold from the rooftop.  I plan to finish the grueling schedule tomorrow evening with a rooftop recital for the birds and anyone foolish enough to leave their windows open.