Day +19, Sunday

I’ve continued to be successful in my quest to eat Pull & Peel Twizzlers, other solid foods though – eh, not as much. For dinner, I added Peach yogurt. Why Peach? No clue, it just sounded brighter than my traditional plain or vanilla. I can’t prove it, but I suspect it was more sugar than actual yogurt, similar to the kind that I had as a kid where I always licked the top seal. For the record, I licked the top seal today, too.

I don’t remember Galina, my nurse coming in for 5:00 am labs. But at 6:30 I felt her tugging at my Blood Fluids ID tag to scan. She saw my open my eyes and softly commented, “you are getting Platelets now.” Per lab results, my platelet count was 18, and anything less than 20 means I need a transfusion. Every time I receive blood products, I think of the donors and I am grateful for their gift of life.

At 7 am, the daytime nursing shift replaced the overnight crew, and I was very happy to see Elaine and Junga pop their heads in my room to say hi – but then immediately close my door to let me sleep. By 7:30, my platelet infusion was complete, and I was doing my best to head to the bathroom and shower before all of the doctors and residents came in for the day….but failed. I don’t know about you, but I feel pretty vulnerable just sitting in bed in my pjs. And not just any set of pjs, but the most un-matching, hideous pjs in the world. The top is blue and has snowmen, bottoms maroon with orange flowers. Toss in a bald head for good measure.

But one doc came in for a pre-rounds check. Nothing new to report except my body did great with the Mycophenolate (MMF) horse pills, and I didn’t have any nausea. There are no new skin issues, no temperature spikes. Mucositis is getting better, bladder is getting better, hemorrhoids are nearly gone, wart wound on foot is OK, pain level is manageable, and please & thank you for ignoring my pajamas. Then he was gone and my nurses came in to administer morning meds, and do the zillion things that only they can while working with other patients.

Realizing it would be a while before I hit the shower, I ordered breakfast and threw on a sweatshirt. And 2 minutes later, Dr. Hickstein walked into the room for a quick briefing.

Dr. Hickstein liked how my numbers looked – my WBC dipped to 3.77, as we have stopped the GCSF (Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor is a glycoprotein that stimulates bone marrow to produce granulocytes and stem cells and release them into the blood stream). This is normal for my counts to dip a bit, all part of the process. If I need to be injected again with GCSF, which I likely will, it’s not a big deal – just part of the transplant process. And Dr H liked how everything else looked. The biggie is getting me off my IV pole (bye bye Bart!) by taking all pills orally, and no longer using the PCA, or pain pump.

With how good things are looking, Dr. H said that I could even leave as early as Wednesday or Thursday. I gulped. But am excited at that prospect. Another biggie for that, is getting my Mom, who will be my caregiver out here, well – here; in my Friday meeting with social work (Jen), we decided to wait until Monday to book her travel, just in case anything changed over the weekend. I’ll know more tomorrow. After Dr. Hickstein left, Elaine wanted to remind me that I’m NOT being kicked out in any way, and that as long as I’m ready to leave the hospital then I can go. But if I wanted an extra day – that’s OK too. So…we’ll just wait and see.

By 10 am, I was exhausted again, and with all Rounds being complete, meds administered, I decided to read Harry Potter and nap, not necessarily in that order.

The rest of the day was uneventful. Between eating lunch, taking meds, reading and going for a walk – it wasn’t bad. I was hoping for a thunderstorm, which there was a chance of here – but nada. Oh well. I did shower and ate a few more Pull & Peels, chatted with Andy.

So I’m ending Day +19 feeling OK. Boring….remember, boring is going to be my go-to word. Time to clean up, don my Ugly PJs and read Harry Potter until I fall asleep…and maybe get another turkey signature or two.