Day +2 (3/16/11)

I have all sorts of good news to share.

First of all, as of yesterday, I am no longer attached to any sort of backpack or fannypack 24/7! When chemo began on the 7th, they had me hooked up to a backpack holding a bag of nausea meds and a liter bag of Mesna, a drug that counteracts the bladder-irritating side-effects of a component of the chemo drugs. Then, last week, they downgraded me to a fannypack when all I needed was the nausea meds, since it's a tiny bag. Well, after passing out twice Saturday night (first time for everything...) they had me hooked back up to the backpack so I could get fluids constantly. So, basically, I have had a bag of some sort attached to the tubes hanging out of my chest since last monday. Having it off has been freeing, to say the least! And not to mention, it makes showering an easier task. (I still have to tape saran wrap over the ol' chest tubes, though.)

The second good news that happened yesterday is that I am already Neutropenic. (no white blood cells, no immunity) This is good news on many levels. It means that the chemo is working and the stem cells are already hard at work killing the last of the old cells. We were under the impression that it would be a few days before this happened, so we are ahead of schedule!

So now, we continue to go to the clinic every morning for labs, where they will moniter my blood levels, watching for them to rise, and they will give me transfusions of anything I'm low on: Magnesium, platelets, electrolytes, etc. Or in today's case, Potassium.

On Saturday (Day +5) I will begin recieveing low-dose Neupogen shots to help get the show on the road in my bone marrow. Hopefully it won't take long for engraftment to occur, and for me to be able to go outside without a hospital mask again!

Until engraftment, I continue to live with the ultimate mindfulness. One infection and this transplant patient could be in trouble. So I take my anti-fungal, anti-viral and anti-bacterial meds, wash wash wash my hands, eat according to the Nuetropenic diet, wear my hospital mask and try to stay in my room as much as possible.

Before long, my counts will be back up, and who knows, I might just get some energy back. This fatigue is fierce!



This has been a week of huge hurdles jumped and good news all around. So far, everything is going better than expected with my progress.


Thank you for celebrating all of my little successes with me.