It seems every day has a lot going on.
Last evening Garry received a blood transfusion along with a Intravenous Immunoglobulin (IVIG). He had a reaction to the IVIG and spiked a temperature. In addition to that he was experiencing some chest pain, so an EKG, bloodwork, and a nitro patch were given.
He also was having trouble catching his breath, and the nurse suggested that he might be experiencing a panic attack. Due to all of this, there was a lot of people and a lot of activity in his room throughout the night. When I visited him today, he was quite tired from all of the above and was a bit discouraged.
His sister Gail will be arriving tomorrow from North Saanich BC to see her brother. We haven’t seen Gail for the last two years and it will be wonderful to see her again.
We still don’t have the finalized bone marrow biopsy results but I am planning on being at the hospital at 8:30 AM tomorrow and hope to catch the doctors while they are on their rounds.
It seems every day has some new challenges, but in other ways, Garry is improving day by day. We still have no idea of when he might be coming home, as they need to ensure that he is not dealing with an ongoing infection given his compromised immune status
We have been so thankful for the wonderful care Garry has received this past week.
I hope we are not overwhelming you with too much data, but Garry (and Shirley too) has found that keeping the blog up-to-date with the happenings has been very helpful to keep track of everything.
Thanks for standing with us, and for all your love, support, and prayers.
Hi Garry,
It’s only 2 years since we met on the ward at Princess Margaret, both very hopeful for the new immunotherapy treatment that we were starting. Your recent state of health challenges is really disheartening. But it does seem like you are getting very good medical Care.
I started getting IVIG monthly about a year ago since a side effect of my BiTE treatment is that it destroys a lot of healthy B cells and my antibody counts were low. It should help improve your immunity immensely. It wears off in about a month so if you need to get it again you may not have a reaction the second time.
I really hope you are through the worst and are on the road to recovery. Prime time biking season is upon us and I’m sure you will get out to enjoy it. However, we live in dangerous times. I just had to cancel my annual bike ride down to the Toronto Islands because the smoke from wildfires in Ontario and Quebec are swirling around us and the air quality index has gone High.
All the best,
Ernie
Thanks for the note, nice to hear from you. I hope the IVIG kicks in quickly and positivly. There is also some talk about using steroids to help with the PITA. All the best, Garry