The First 24 Hours

Fortunately, they let me drive us to the new hospital.  And once we got there they were ready for us. Dr. T had asked that they call her when we got there, and she came not long after we were settled in. The evening was a bit of a whirlwind. Once we were settled Dr. T, the hospitalist, and a couple of nurses were in our room as I answered question after question of her history. And then Dr. T layed it all out. It was like hitting the ground running. She felt certain that we were dealing with one of four things; ALL (easiest to treat, and could be done here), AML (a bit more complicated, and most likely we would have to go somewhere else), aplastic anemia (she doubted this was it, since she didn't present like one) or ITP (idiopathic thrombocytopenia purpura, basically nothing, she was convinced this wasn't it and if it was then she should quit her job). The only way to know is to do a bone marrow biopsy and that she would schedule one for first thing in the morning. In the meantime she would get a transfusion of platelets, which they did recheck and they were at 13. Also her WBCs, white blood cells, were 10. The bone marrow results could take until Tuesday to get back but she would look at the slides and be able to give us a preliminary result. 
She shared some many more things it was information overload. After she left our nurse and the charge nurse went into support mode, it was amazing. They brought me a notebook so I could write any and everything down, they told me that at night they were there to unload on. During the day so much information would be thrown at us that they were there as a support. It was overwhelming, to say the least.
Meanwhile Mary had to not only have another blood draw but a new IV in. It was rough for us but she was rewarded with two cups of chocolate ice cream, two cups of jello, a popsicle and a few graham crackers. All of which she felt pretty good about.
We both slept pretty well, all things considered. And bright and early someone was there to draw blood. Her platelets were up to 75 and her WBCs were up to 20. Doubling in such a short amount of time, with her other symptoms was, for me, confirmation that we were dealing with a leukemia.

Not long after that we headed down the hall to the PICU, where the bone marrow biopsy would be taking place. I stayed with her for a little while but I knew I couldn't stay for the procedure. Technically I could have but I knew I didn't want to. I know my limits, and that far exceeded them. I walked back to our room, and I cried. Well, I call it having a pressure release. For the first time it all kind of hit me. And then I cried some more because I couldn't find any tissues in her room. The nurse came in, saw my state and ran and got me two full boxes. I took some deep breaths and started writing anything I could think of. 

I knew the procedure would be short, and it was. They brought me back while she was still asleep. And asleep she stayed for some time. I know she was tired and I think she was just taking advantage of the nap time. After watching her for a while they brought her back to her room where she slowly woke up. It wasn't long before she was drinking and interacting.

We had our first visitor, David, which was happiness all around. While he was there we took her on a walk around the hall, which she sort of tolerated. 

By that point we had also visited with the doctor a couple of times. By looking at the slides she could tell that it was either ALL or AML but we would have to wait until the final results came the next day. However how she talked, sharing treatment plans and such, I could tell she felt it was ALL.

The rest of the evening and night went smoothly. She was eating and drinking well. And then had a surge of energy around 11 so we did some hall walking. Which I know is good, but it was ready for bed!

That about covers everything up to Day 1.

Are you still with me?