2nd ASCT - Day 63 - July 20 2012

Well, if having multiple myeloma wasn't ENOUGH...
Jani left me alone for the 1st time today and went lumber jacking with Ron over in the Pahsimeroi (just over an hour away from Mackay, Idaho).

 All I had to do while Jani was gone was walk the dogs. I got a late start and didn't get up on the Mine Hill until just before 1 PM. All was going well until I slipped on some gravel and land directly on my forehead HARD on the dirt and rock road! Instant blood. I didn't lose consciousness, but I did feel sorta sick to my stomach. I had a little scrape on my right leg and right elbow, but neither were bleeding...just my forehead. Since I'm on daily Fragmin injections (blood thinner for my right atrial clot) I applied pressure to the bleeding area with a mask (all I had in my pocket)...and they are not absorbent. Walked back to Jonah (the car) trying to decide what my next course of action would be.

I drove to town about 1 mile away and found local EMT Cindy Kimball who suggested that I go to the Mackay Clinic for attention. So, I took the dogs home and stopped at my neighbor's house, Wayne Olsen and asked him if he could drive me. The Mackay Clinic was closed (Friday afternoon) so we drove 30 miles to Lost River Medical Center in Arco where I was seen in the ER by Nurse Practitioner, Hyrum Davenport.

When you've just had an autologous stem cell transplant, insults like this require A LITTLE MORE ATTENTION. The nurse practitioner in Arco talked to the inpatient transplant nurse practitioner at the University of Colorado Hospital since the transplant clinic is closed on Fridays to make sure I was assessed and treated appropriately. They decided to stitch the laceration closed since I'm allergic to adhesives, especially steri-strips; put me on 7 days of Augmentin, and send me 100 miles away to have a CT Scan of my head to assure I was not bleeding beneath my skull. 

 Just 3 sutures.

Poor Wayne Olsen...my driver...a short trip became a LONG TRIP.

I was seen at the Blackfoot Bingham Memorial Hospital ER by Dr. Allen (the same physician who diagnosed my first impending shingle outbreak about a year before I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma). He ordered the CT Scan of my head which thankfully was completely normal. He wanted me to have tetanus shot and I called the transplant nurse practitioner at UCH again to see if that would be okay. After some consultation, they decided the tetanus shot would NOT hurt me, but it would probably not give me any immunity since I don't have any functional immunoglobulins. So, the nurse said he had to give me the tetanus shot in a muscle and I said, "Good luck finding some muscle!) Ended up giving me the injection in my right deltoid (arm) muscle.

Back to Mackay and Jani was home ... NOT HAPPY WITH ME AT ALL ... "leave you alone for a nanosecond and look what happens!"

By this time the lidocaine used to put the sutures in had worn off and I felt like I had been hit in the head with a board! Every time I make ANY facial expression it seems to spasm in pain - plus I have a an underlying right sided headache. Local EMT, Cindy Kimball stopped by the house to see how I was doing which was nice.

Oh the JOY OF BEING ME~