My First Visit with Tami in Seattle at the SCCA +57

Greetings from Seattle!

That's my mom with the water bottle, Tami and I yesterday in Seattle. Tami has had to wear her glasses lately because a medicine she was taking would have stained her contacts orange. And of course I had on my nerdy, anti-migraine, rose colored glasses because hospitals are full of fluorescent light and glaring windows.

I am in Seattle and so glad to be here. It's the first time I've seen Tami since February when she was in San Jose on business, 2 days before she was hospitalized, and a week before her diagnosis of Myelodysplasia. I saw her for dinner on Friday night and knew she had been dealing with exhaustion and anemia that at the time was being caused by an unknown condition. A bone marrow biopsy had been performed a few weeks earlier but no cause was found. She did seem very tired and that worried me greatly because she wasn't her usual self.

After learning of her Myelodysplastic Syndrome diagnosis a week later this was the goal: To find a marrow match and have a stem cell transplant at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, which is the treatment hospital that works with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center here in Seattle, WA.

Fred Hutchinson is where marrow transplants were invented and they are one of the top 3 transplant centers in the world. So I was thrilled when I learned that her case had been accepted. Her doctor in her hometown was in contact with the doctors at The Hutch and it was in Seattle that they conducted the marrow registry searches for her.

This is the building that houses the infusion clinic. Where Tami spent most of her day yesterday with tubes and bags attached to her Hickman Catheter. Yesterday she had to arrive at 8:45 and was there until after 3:00 pm receiving seemingly endless infusions of hydration, magnesium and medicine. When she finally got to return to her apartment she had another 8 hours of hydration infusions ahead of her.

And this is my mom. She has been Tami's constant care taker since this all began in February. Fortunately she is retired so she had no work conflicts in wanting and needing to be by Tami's side.

Also good is that the iPhone was invented and that she can now read books on her Kindle for iPhone's app so that she doesn't have to carry books around with her in her purse and she can play lots of video games while Tami is napping or too tired to talk.

Did I mention she HATES to have her picture taken? These are the only photos she approved for publishing. LOL

This was the view from her infusion room yesterday. The view the day before was better from the other side of the building but I forgot to take a picture :(

The hospital is full of some really gorgeous art pieces. This is a close up of a stained glass room screen near the elevators on the infusion floor. I believe Seattle has some of the finest glass artists in the world.

And this is a view of the Space Needle from the HWY overpass just outside of the hospital. Tami's apartment is only 7 blocks away from the treatment building so I hoofed it on up to get some much needed exercise. There are hills here like in San Francisco so you can get a real workout while you walk.

Today Tami has another day of infusions ahead of her at the apartment and a blood draw and meeting with her doctors to assess her progress. Hopefully no medicine today. The doctors think they have eradicated the bacterial infection she had contracted but now a viral infection she had before has flared up again. That's why she needed the medicinal infusion yesterday. I'll study up on it and give you a description of it tomorrow.