Day +8

3

Things are progressing. I haven’t received my labs yet, but I feel pretty well. I suppose that’s a good sign. I’m hoping my white count is on its way back up. We’ve been working on that during Reiki. The WBC was still 0.1. Oh well, what can I do but wait? Here’s a little audio. SCT Day +8 I’ve had mucositis. This is not fun. It hasn’t been terrible, but is less comfortable. I have some mouth/throat sores and some GI problems. So far, I haven’t had to resort to pain meds.

This is a story about being asked for a stool sample. This is a PG-13 story. I added this on January 4, 2008.  You can hear that I have a cold during the time I recorded this.

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Day +5

4

It’s day +5.  My WBC is now 1.7. Not much happened today. I got some fluids. My blood pressure was pretty low.

Amy asked how the re-infusion went.  I hated that part. She mentioned that was a prime opportunity for nausea to creep in. I had some Zofran, Ativan and some oxycodone in my IV.  If you even anticipate needing these things, make sure you get them.  Also, ask for a slow infusion.  There’s less discomfort that way.

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Day +4

3

Thpartyhat.jpgis is day +4. It’s also Kathy’s birthday, so we’re wearing hats. I think I might be the only one wearing a hat.

Here are my lab values for today:

Hgb: 10.7 g/dL (ref range: 12.0 – 15.5)

Plt: 104 (ref range: 150-450)

WBC: 2.8 (ref range: 3.2 – 9.8)

There’s more, but I’ll add that later.

So far, I’ve expererienced mild nausea a few times. We all know how afraid I was of that. In fact, it made me put off the SCT for years. I find that if I just keep eating small snacks, it makes me feel better. I try not to let myself get hungry.

I should be getting out of here for the day. I’ll probably take a quick nap when I get back to the apartment, and then try to catch up on some work.

More soon!

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Day +3

3

This will be day +3. Yesterday wasn’t too terrible. I had a few periods of nausea. A local Reiki practictioner came to the apartment to help me through the second one. It really did help. I ended up asleep, which was good. If you’ve had a stem cell rescue of any kind, I wonder if you experienced the intense discomfort I did when the cells were being infused? I felt pressure/discomfort/pain across my midsection. It was unpleasant. I don’t mean to scare anyone, but if that did happen to you too, you weren’t alone. I have a way to go before I can go home. They expect that I could go as early as day +16. Right now I feel just fine. When I wake up for real, in a couple of hours, I’ll try to find my labs and record them here.

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Day +2

1

This is my first day of simply recovering, after having had stem cells infused for 2 days.  I felt pretty queasy this morning, so I spent a while in the clinic with some IV Zofran and Ativan.  I’m not sure what caused this to happen, since I felt fine on the way to the clinic.  I kind of just wish I could stay home now.  I think schlepping into the clinic causes problems.  There’s nothing that can be done about that though.

I had a good laugh, which really did help me to feel better for a bit.  Now I think I’ll rest for a while.  Then I have to make myself exercise!  They say it can help.

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