Stem Cell Transplant Blog Day 18-19.....Travelling Back in time!

Hello again!

Traffic to the Blog has gone Wayyyy down. I feel like I'm letting people down for not posting everyday but I'm doing my best here ! Not going to give up!

Anyway, let's pretend that we go back in time again.

This is Feb 7 2011.

Finally figured out why the diarrhea is still there. Acyclovir! Found out that the most common side effects are Nausea and diarrhea...Duh! I finally convinced the Doctor (after 4 days trying) to give me Imodium to slow things down.

Besides that I slept most of the day. Didn't even watch TV or anything.

Numbers for that day....Neutrophils for sale:

WBC  7.54
Hgb    110
Platelets 39...rising!
Neutrophils....8.92 (Normal range 1.6 to 7.7)

Went to bed at 9 again and slept through the whole night!

The next day Feb 8 2011, I woke up telling myself " Why the heck I'm I still here"

So that was my first question for the Doctor that morning at 9AM.
Answer: "Well, we want to make sure you eat enough".............WHAT???
Are you kidding me I replied. You keep me here for that when everything here tastes like cardboard and expect me to eat enough. Well I put my foot down and said "I want to go home NOW!" My wife is a French Chef,  I'll eat much better at home.

The Doctor left with a strange look on his face! I was really pissed off (excuse my language).

Numbers for that day:

WBC  7.54.....Normal!
Hgb    110...a little low but not a problem!
Platelets 51.....still rising!
Neutrophils   6.09...back i the normal range!

The Doctor came back at 11 after consulting with the other oncologists and said right away: You are going home today! We just need to ween you off the TPN and one more bag of Acyclovir. That should only take about 2 hours. Yahoooooo!

Man was I happy. That was day 19 after admission! You can count this 3 ways as I see it. If I count it like the first time. That is from  my first dose of Melphalan ( did not get Palifermin on my first Transplant, just Melphalan the day I was admitted) so that would be day 15, just 4 days more then my first Transplant. If you count it like they do, it's Day+11 after Transplant! Pretty good!
We got home at 8:30PM. Haaaaa, the feeling was FANTASTIC.

Everything seems so long when your in the Hospital but once you're out of there it seems like it went by in the blink of an eye! Felt very grateful. I admit, I cried I was so happy.

That will be my post for today.

Tomorrow Feb 22 is my check up day in Montreal 2 1/2 hours away. Missed the last one because of a snow storm. |So  I'm not sure if I'll be Blogging or not. But my next Post will be on my first days at home and how we solved the Nausea and Diarrhea whit in 24 hours.

Thanks for reading.

Keep Fighting!

Yvon