Friday: Day -1, part II

All in all I have to say I've had a very good day. The 2nd dose of Thymoglobulin finished with no problems. Then I got platelets, and then I got unconnected for awhile. I got to go walk around in the hall - wearing my mask, of course. And I got to take a shower - a somewhat difficult task when electrodes and such are attached all over. It felt great. I've had multiple doses of oral medications. I'm thinking no wonder people aren't hungry. They are full of pills!

Because of the timing discrepancy, they wanted to start tonight's dose of Thymoglobulin sooner. So after much discussion they began it very slowly at 3:00 this afternoon. Every so often they have increased it to get the rate up to 80 and so far, so good! It will likely stay at this rate and finish about 11:30p. After that, I have to get more platelets as I did not get any boost from the ones this morning. The new ones will be HLA matched to me and my donor. Hopefully Mike will get to go home and sleep tonight.

They told me this morning that my donor's cells would be on a plane at 6:30 this evening. I've been thinking good flying weather and plane thoughts all day. The doc told me he was glad it wasn't winter because snow delays can cause bad problems for transplants. I hadn't even thought about that!

Daily food review: and borrowing a line from a friend on a foodie board, "Today's lunch is brought to you by the colour yellow." (Sesame Street fans will understand.) Now this was not the lunch that I ordered on my little menu chart yesterday.
Grilled cheese sandwich dripping (literally) with butter - perhaps prepared according to a Paula Deen recipe?
Canned peaches
Lemon Jell-O
Oatmeal raisin cookie

Until I opened up the sandwich I thought I might be able to eat lunch. Well, not the Jell-O, but the rest. Nope. But that sandwich was enough to turn anyone's stomach.

I ate the cookie and ordered more food from the other menu. What I ordered:
baked chicken with gravy
mashed potatoes
green beans
vanilla pudding
unsweetened tea

What I got: nuked 1/2 chicken breast with some kind of ultra lemony sauce pretending to be hollandaise, green beans and sweet tea. Now I even told them if there was no unsweetened don't bring me anything, I would just drink water. They were out of potatoes. No explanation on why no pudding. The green beans were edible. At this point I asked my nurse did I have to eat food from here or could Mike bring me something. He can bring me anything from restaurants as long as the kitchen has a 95+ health department rating. And anything he cooks at home. So far today the VUH kitchen is batting zero.

Dinner: this was what I ordered on yesterday's menu sheet (except the tea).
Oven fried chicken legs
Mashed potatoes
Corn
Angel food cake with peaches
Sweet tea

The only other veggie choice was white beans - nothing green at all. And remember I am eating canned stuff, too. Surprisingly the chicken had good taste. It was seasoned well and properly cooked. But the "crust" was soft from being in the warming tray on the way from the kitchen to the 11th floor. Mashed potatoes and corn were what you would expect from canned and boxed items. Angel food cake was not bad. I am told this place has unsweetened tea, but I'm beginning to doubt it. I have ordered unsweetened for every meal and have not received a glass yet that didn't have artificial sweetener in it. I didn't need to get Mike to go get carryout tonight after all. Though I might get him to go get a gallon of Milo's unsweetened tea from Harris Teeter and put in my refrigerator.

My bone marrow must be nearly totally gone. It's an odd feeling.

I've had several phone calls from relatives today. And I know I missed some calls from both family and friends when medical stuff was going on. If I missed talking with you today, please forgive me. I don't think I'm going to return any calls tonight as I am getting pretty tired.

And that's the way it is. 17 July 2009.
Goodnight and godspeed, Uncle Walter.