Quiet day.

Oh, the tourists are NOT happy today! It rained last night, and it's been cold and windy all day. Decent weather for walking, though. Did my usual trek on the beach this morning, and Kirk and I just got back from a walk by the bay.

Poor Kirk had one of his gnarly migraines today, so I spent a quiet day at the computer working on some websites. Not much else to report here; we'll probably have a Scrabble grudge match later (Kirk was the Scrabble police last night. But I think he was making up his own rules...it's okay though -- Patricia and I still beat him.)

Back to the Infusion Center for labs in the morning.

Right now I think I'll raid the freezer for a pre-dinner snack of Ben & Jerry's!

I definitely prefer a sprint to a marathon.

Well, in my usual "can't do anything halfway" fashion, it turns out I had not ONE cold virus, but TWO, simultaneously. Really...who knew that was even possible?? Except, of course, when your immune system has spent the last five months getting nuked to beat Fukushima.

Other than that, doc says I'm a little wheezy but doing good. I get a teensy bit stronger every day, although my blood counts are still doing the rollercoaster thing. Today I needed another neupogen shot to boost white cells. By Monday I'll probably need hemoglobin and platelets. Patience not being one of my many virtues, it's driving me a little bonkers!

Coronado is quickly filling up with tourists for the long weekend. Gonna have to hit the beach early for my walks. Fortunately I have the weekend off from the infusion center!

One day at a time, eh?

Not much to report here..gradually getting a little perkier. STILL have this gnarly cough, as does Kirk now; just hoping like heck I don't get the virus all over again. Apparently with my poor abused immune system, that could happen. Aaaaccckkk!

My appetite has suddenly improved, which is nice! Still on the neutropenic diet, and going bonkers for some fresh raw fruit and veggies. And then there are my drifting teeth on the side that had the tumor…poor things aren't sure where the heck they're supposed to be these days, and boy is it a CREEPY feeling when I inadvertently bite own on something on that side!

I have my first doctor checkup tomorrow since coming home. I'll be wearing my track shoes so I can bolt just in case they get a wild hair and want to incarcerate me again...

Just checking in.

Plugging away here. White count was back down today, so it's three days of neupogen shots and a second flavor of antibiotics just for good measure.

On top of that, it was May gray and drizzly all day…icckk. Although it did make for an empty beach to walk on this afternoon. Wimpy tourists.

Platelets...and Chihuahuas...

Back for labs today and a unit of platelets. Still shlepping around with the cold and coughing my dang head off. Arrgggghhh.

We stopped at the grocery store on the way home; of course I stayed in the car. I'm sitting there enjoying the gorgeous spring breeze, and a car pulls in next to me. Mind you, the damn lot was about half empty. Anyway, the lady sits there doing something with the motor running for five minutes, and finally gets out of the car. I know she knows I'm there because she about needed a shoe horn to get out, she was parked so close. She closes the door carefully, and says to something inside the car, "now you be quiet!" As she walks away, a chihuahua pops up and starts going all hound-of-the-Baskervilles on me. And for the next fifteen minutes, I get my right eardrum hammered by the ferocious verbal assault of a dog with a head the size of a mandarin orange. Oh, I tried ignoring her, I tried telling her to be quiet. I even tried to reason with her ("you know, even in my significantly weakened condition, I could still kick your ass.")

Finally Kirk came out of the store and saved me. I swear my ear rang for twenty minutes afterward. Don't get me wrong -- I love dogs!

Time for a movie...

Back to the Land of the Living…Again…

First full day post-escape. Of course the first event was an early morning (grrrrr) trip back to the hospital to check my counts. Everything looks good -- white count is soaring after my last neupogen injection, platelets are low but hanging in there.

Went for a walk…it felt fabulous, although everything's weak and creaky and sorta loose jointed from two weeks in captivity. I'm definitely weak, and everything exhausts me in about five minutes. (Which of course I found out by trying to do stuff every time I had a flicker of renewed strength.) Lots of flopping on the couch today like one of those fainting goats, lying perfectly still staring into space.

Then there's the G**D*** M***** F****** head cold (technically, RSV -- the most common culprit of colds.) Okay, I am totally grateful that ALL I got was a stupid head cold, when all sorts of really nasty things lurk waiting to attack when you have no immune system. But the mouth breathing is making me criminally insane. I asked the doctor what I could take for it…and was told…are you ready for this??… "well, we don't want to overmedicate you." Which is really HOWLING funny when you review everything that's been pumped through my body in the last six months. I'm allowed Claritan and Benadryl, both of which apparently flee in terror when they encounter the snot factory that is my nose.

Okay, fainting goat moment...

Day +14

A unit of platelets and a shot of neupogen for the road and I'm outta here this afternoon!

Day +13

So after all the cultures and tests, turns out I have a cold. I was really fortunate that it hit me after my counts had already begun to rebound. Also fortunate that this was an autologous transplant, and not allogeneic -- it would have been very serious so soon after an allo transplant.

Anywho, I feel great today, hopping around the ward in my isolation garb and chomping at the bit to get outta here. If everything continues to look good, I'll be escaping tomorrow. YIPPPPPEEEEE!!!

Day +12

Well, the fever was back last night, and briefly topped 101.2, so I was treated to the "febrile patient" protocol. Blood cultures from three different places first: a sample from each port of my catheter, and then an IV in my arm. Then a chest x-ray…at midnight. Started on prophylactic antibiotics (a second variety), and vital signs every hour.

I mentioned to the doctor today that it felt suspiciously like a run-of-the-mill head cold. And so I was treated to a barrage of culture swaps up the nose, amongst pretty much every other sample imaginable.

Results from all the tests will take at least 24 hours. BUT…my counts are good (WBC 5.6 this morning) so if the fever stays at bay and everything else looks good, they might still spring me outta this place tomorrow.

Starting to look like an irradiated opossum again...

Now to make up some sleep.

Day +11

Today's update: WBC at 1.4. Yippeee! I did have a low grade fever last night, but it's back to 98.5 this morning. I could be out of here in a couple more days if all continues to go well!

My hair has decided to eject again. *Sigh*.

I had an interesting dream last night. I was with a couple of people (I know not who they were), and we were evidently trespassing at some sort of rec center. We were doing our best not to be discovered, but every time we were discovered, I went all Kung Fu Panda on them. I mean, I was kicking ASS, flinging bodies around. I thought that was a fairly unusual dream -- I don't know about you, but those types of dreams usually just involve a lot of fleeing in terror. But no....I was just fricking dominating!

Day +9

Hmmmm....yesterday's post has mysteriously disappeared.

My hair is still holding fast. It could still decide to abandon ship over the next week. But for now, I'm looking suspiciously like a Chia Pet. It's growing in faster on the very top of my head, so I'm sporting a sort of military fade effect. Hopefully it's gonna hang on and keep growing!

WBC is up from 0.1 to 0.2 this morning. We're on our way…yippee!

Day +8

...and waiting some more. WBC still at 0.1, but I started neupogen yesterday, so that should begin to come around pretty quickly.

The mucositis sore throat is really annoying. I'll try to swallow in my sleep and just about leap off the bed. It's not exactly conducive to eating or swallowing pills, either. They started me on an IV pain med this morning, because the one they had me on was doing nothing. Hopefully this one will make a real difference!

Been practicing meditating and guided imagery every night with my sister Patricia. I'm starting to get pretty good at it...finding it much easier to push aside all of my thoughts and worries and just focus on healing.

Time to do some laps!

Day +6

Holding up pretty good here at the Ritz Carlton. We've managed to get the nausea corralled, YAY. My WBC is down to 0.1, so now I'm just waiting for it to climb back up. I'll start getting neupogen shots again tomorrow.

My throat is pretty raw from mucositis caused by the melphalan, but so far no sores in my mouth. Once my white count starts to climb, the mucositis will heal.

My hair is still growing...I'm starting to look a little like Justin Timberlake. We'll see if it's all on the pillow in the morning...

I discovered today that the cafeteria actually makes a decent cheese quesadilla and chicken noodle soup. I'll be living on those for a while!

Day +4

Not much to report here; just hanging around waiting for my cells to do their thing.

I think we're getting a little bit of a handle on the nausea, which is a relief. You never really notice just how much eating and talking about eating goes on around you until you're nauseous for days on end. Every TV show, every commercial, and pretty much every conversation that comes up somehow pertains to food. Torture!

Still doing my laps, although I've found it difficult to pinpoint a time of day when traffic allows me to get up to cruising speed with Pole Newman in tow. Can't wait to get back to my beach walks.

Inspecting my pillow every morning waiting for my new hair to abandon ship. Can't imagine it's going to stick around after the melphalan, although it'd sure be nice if it did! Time will tell.

Day +2

Well, time's not exactly flying by here, but at LEAST I have a hot shower. True, the entire bathroom is about the size of that Barbie lunchbox you carried in first grade. And actually taking the hot shower while sporting the catheter and accommodating Pole Newman in the bathroom requires a type of agility most often associated with lemurs. But hey….it's HOT!

Still spending a good deal of my day contemplating whether my antiemetic meds are actually working. (We've nicknamed my room "the vomitoreum".) It could be worse, though, so I'm not gonna bitch too much about that either. Unfortunately the food is just about as good as the stuff at Scripps. Been relying on cheerios, canned peaches and ginger ale for the most part.

Been doing my usual walking (26 laps is a mile), and met with a PT today to help put together some more exercises I can do while I'm here. They're all pretty wussy little moves, but they give me something to do during the inevitably very long day.

That's the scoop for now…doc says 10 to 14 days before my stem cells mature and my counts are good again. Countin' the days!

Waiting, waiting, waiting...

At about noon yesterday my stem cells were infused back into my body. The process didn't take very long, once the little guys had their warm bath to defrost them. The taste of the DMSO used to preserve them was disgusting, but went away as soon as the infusion was done.

So now we wait. My white count is steadily dropping, and it will probably be about 2 weeks before it finishes hitting bottom and comes back up again. In the meantime, I'll try to keep myself entertained and not think about how nauseous I am...blecchhh....

Big dose of melphalan today.

They give you ice chips to suck on while you receive the chemo to reduce the possibility of mouth sores. I was instructed to start the ice chips 15 minutes before, and continue for 15 minutes after.

You know me -- I can't do anything without taking it to the extreme -- so I spent an entire hour with my mouth literally packed with ice chips. I swallowed a few now and then for good measure. I swear I was peeing ice water. And I sounded sorta like a mule deer when I tried to talk.

All packed and ready to be admitted tomorrow afternoon. Wednesday is my new birthday!