Wednesday, January 14

I woke up at about 6:30a.m. to wierd noises Sou was making in the shower.

"WHOOP....WHEWWW!!!....AAAAHHGGGA" he yelled. I also heard splashing. What the heck? He came out in his boxers and hopped on the bed with his hair all wet. He looked at me and said, "MAN that shit worked. My fever feels better. All that blood, got energy now!" he said as he laid back down in bed. Since he was all powered up, there was no use in trying to go back to bed. I started packing up our things and headed down to the cafeteria for some breakfast. 

After breakfast, the flight nurses who would be on the jet with us came by. One of them grabbed our bags and headed to the airport. The other nurse stayed to get records and to ride in the ambulance with us. I asked, "So, is there a bathroom on the plane?"

"No. It's real small. Your knees will be touching his bed," she said. 

"Well, he's been having diarrhea because of the anti-biotics. So......"

"We'd use a bed pan" she responded. Without thinking, I made this disgusted face. I know for a fact that bed pans are not 100% effective in doing what they are supposed to do. And to have a used bed pan spill in a tiny aircraft. That would not be cool=(.

The flight turned out to be fine. It was a smooth flight with little turbulence. No, Sou did not need to go to the bathroom on the flight either. When we landed in Seattle, they had an ambulance already waiting. I got to ride in the front seat on the way to the hospital. I caught a glimpse of the city and figured that I'd just get lost if I attempted to drive. Although, it was exciting to see a "real city". We arrived at UW and the paramedics assured us that they knew exactly where we needed to go. They unloaded Sou and all of us (the 2 flight nurses, 2 medics and I) headed down a winding hall to an elevator. We went up to the 7th floor and approached the desk. Everyone was looking at us like we were from another planet. They didn't know who we were or what we were talking about. We were at "7 North". We needed to be at "7 Northeast". WTF. So back down the elevator we went and down that winding hall. Everyone who saw us gave us this wierd look. Not a very friendly vibe. 

"That's UW for you" one of the medics said. Through a series of elevators and hallways we finally made it to "7 Northeast". 

"Oh, we've been expecting you!" the front desk said. Thank God. Exhausted from the flight and dizzy from their turbo elevators, we were finally escorted to his room. They unloaded Sou and I began to put things away and get settled in. 

Not too long after, a female MD came into the room and explained that they were still reviewing his records and that his plan for treatment was still not completed. She also informed us that the results from the lab regarding his bone marrow were back. It turns out that Sou had a sub-type of AML that has a very high cure-rate. That gave me a feeling of relief. Instead of the traditional chemo, he would be receiving two medications (one oral and one IV). After I asked a few more questions, the doc mentioned to Sou that an additional bone marrow sample could be put towards research. Right when Sou heard that, all that came out of his mouth was "NO". She continued to explain that she gives her patients Fentanyl and some other drug for pain and that it wouldn't be so bad. I remembered I read that Fentanyl is about 80 times stronger than morphine. Sou continued to say no. Before the doc left, she told him to think about it because it could benefit their research. But I knew Sou had made up his mind. He was traumatized. Sometime later in the day, an asian dude came by to draw blood. I asked how many tubes he needed. He just looked at me and said, "A lot."

"Well, what's a lot?" I asked.

"Thirteen tubes" he said with a partial grin. Isn't that insane? It wasn't even 24 hours since his blood transfusion and they were already taking the blood back. They also took him for another chest x-ray. After that, they let us sleep. They said the real action wouldn't start til the next day.