What a Week!

We got flights out of Boston on Wednesday afternoon so we were just hanging out in the morning at the hotel.  Trent was EXTREMELY ill and it was pretty ugly.  I said a prayer and put on some soft music.  I could feel the spirit in the room change almost immediately and it didn't take Trent too long to feel the same.  I was pretty worried about how I was going to get him to the airport and home.  We decided to fork out $50 bucks for the cab ride so he didn't have to walk to the subway.  That was the best $50 bucks I have spent in a long time!

We had a short flight to JFK and Trent was doing really well.  The five hour layover tanked us though.  We started off okay, watching some episodes of "The Office" on my laptop.  After about three episodes Trent was miserable.  He kept saying he needed to throw up and I begged him to go to the bathroom to do it.  He said the men's rooms in airports are way too gross to throw up in and he would rather do it right in front of everyone.  Yuck!  Thankfully it did not come to that.  While we were waiting Dr. Carr from Huntsman called to see if we were okay.  I told him about Trent's fevers and he warned me about pneumonia.  He said that Levaquin was a good antibiotic to take for that.  I had that at home but not with me.

We made it through the six hour flight by the skin of our teeth.  My brother, Josh, picked us up at the airport and let us stay at his place that night.  We got to Brigham at about noon on Thanksgiving and Trent went right to bed.  When he woke up he was feeling pretty good so we gulped down Thanksgiving dinner and headed to Idaho to be with our kids.  Mallory had stayed in Utah an extra day to play with cousins so we had some good time to spend just with her while we drove.  Trent was singing and having fun during the whole trip.  He looked better than he had in a long time.  But by the time we got to Idaho he was headed downhill.  Trevor and Heidy gave us their bedroom because Trent was so sick.  He was in bed all day Friday and was steadily getting worse.  By the next morning I was really wondering if Trent had pneumonia.  He was showing all the signs and I was afraid we would not have enough pain pills to get him home if I didn't get more quick.  So I hauled him in to the Community Care facility in Rexburg.  The PA was pretty out of his element when he saw Trent.  He told us that Trent was the sickest person they had in that clinic in all the ten years of operation.  Uh, thanks?  I gave him the run down and told him the short version of Trent's history.  I told him he had pneumonia and needed antibiotics and pain meds.  He basically took my word for the diagnosis and gave him some fluids and Rocephin.  Trent's blood pressure was really low (94/61) and his pulse was high (122) They ran a CBC on Trent's blood and found that his hemoglobin was 8.4.  Normal for that is 12-16.  Translation: Trent needs more blood.  At Huntsman they don't usually do a transfusion until the patient hits 7.  Oncologists have a higher tolerance for low hemoglobin than regular docs do. So the PA was saying Trent needed to be admitted right away for a transfusion and that we needed to get home quickly.  After we left the office I called the Huntsman and the on call doc said Trent would be fine to stay and that I should call if he got worse.  So we decided to tough it out and stay one more day.

Our kids were having a great time and despite all the drama/trauma that we were experiencing I was enjoying myself too.  I know that Trent wishes he was spending more time with his family and even though he was really sick he wanted to stay.  We left Sunday morning and tried to get home as fast as possible.  We left at 11:15, stopped for a short visit with my Grandpa, and still made it home by 1:50.  Yeah, we rocked the road that day!  It is normally a 2 hour and forty five minute drive without stops.

Trent has been in a tremendous amount of pain and we are working really hard to control that.  I called Katie at the Huntsman today and she is going to call in a few scripts for Trent and we are going to add Ibuprofen around the clock to help control the pain.  I faxed her the CBC from Saturday and Dr. Gouw decided not to transfuse yet.  They might do it in Boston before the surgery.  So for now, we are going to feed Trent steaks and protein shakes for every meal.  Yum!