Transfusion #11

Mom had an appointment with her oncologist, Dr. Chan, this morning. She also had an appointment for a transfusion for platelets and also for her thumb. Originally, the platelet transfusion was for the afternoon, but AJ (Dr. Chan's nurse) called the ATC and was able to get us in right after we left Dr. Chan's office. Yay, AJ! No spending an extra hour on the freeway running back and forth for appointments! Dr. Chan was pleased with how Mom was doing; her blood pressure, heart rate, weight, lungs, heart, etc., were all doing well. He was also pleased that she had gone to Las Vegas twice since she was diagnosed with leukemia. (Her health goal that Dr. Chan had entered in her charts when he first started treating her in July was to go to Las Vegas one last time before she died.) His main concern now is with her low white blood cell count, which is at 1,900/mcL; the normal range is 4,500 to 10,000/mcL. He prescribed levofloxacin (an antibacterial) and acyclovir (an antiviral) as a preventive measure against infections. We have a follow-up appointment with him in January 2017.

During the transfusion today Nurse Sandi was Mom's primary nurse, with nurses Rowena and Rachel assisting. Platelets can be transfused a lot faster than packed red blood cells, about 1 hour per bag versus 3 hours per bag. (Due to Mom's heart condition PRBCs need to be transfused slowly so her heart is not stressed by the additional volume of fluids coming in too quickly.) Although the platelet bag they give Mom is the same size as the unit of packed red blood cells bag, its actually 5 units of platelets.


Since we were able to get the transfusion earlier, I was able to get an appointment for Mom to have her thumb checked out at the Kaiser Nurse Treatment Center (NTC) this afternoon. We saw Nurse Frieda, who also checked Mom's thumb when we had returned from Las Vegas 2 weeks ago. She was pleased with the progress she saw; the big open hole in Mom's thumb has filled in with granulating tissue. But there is an edge of old tissue that needs to be debrided. So Nurse Frieda applied Medihoney to help with the debriding. We will leave the Medihoney in place, covered by the Mepilex Ag pad, until next Monday when Mom goes back to the NTC to have the thumb checked again.


Total cost for Mom's 3 appointments, 2 prescriptions, & 5 units of platelets today:  $79.41. And that includes $6 for parking. Mom has excellent medical insurance!