Monday: Day 2 ~ Part II

Good evening friends! I didn't get to leave the hospital as early as we thought, as I had to have IV antibiotic and a unit of platelets before I could go. I think we actually left around noon time. We got back to the apartment and Mike fixed me a tuna salad sandwich. Then I fell asleep for the first real, uninterrupted sleep I've had in several days. I'm still feeling kind of tired and sluggish. Think my 22yo was out partying? LOL.

So now comes the hard part and the wait. These are the drugs I am on daily: anti-rejection (2 different ones), antibiotic (1 oral, 1 IV), anti-viral, anti-fungal, Nexium, compazene (as needed), oxycodone (as needed), Ativan (as needed). And that's it, I think. The IV anti-biotic is interesting. Mike attaches it to my Picc line. It looks like a clear balloon inside a little baby bottle. It's under pressure, so after it's attached and the balloon collapses, the antibiotic is finished going in. The first one is nearly finished now. Pretty cool way to administer. No IV pole, gravity, etc. needed. Some of these things I take several times a day. Only one just once. Mike made me a simple chart on the computer to help me track everything.

Dinner!!! I have a superb food report. Mike cooked dinner. Now this is a really big deal because Mike doesn't cook. Not bbq or anything. But he is willing to try to cook anything I felt like eating. And I felt like eating Tomato Crumble. I can't tell you when I've tasted anything better. And it was so nice to have a hot meal. None of the hospital food was ever more than luke warm. Seeing something come steaming hot out of the dish was a treat. Sally had brought me heirloom tomatoes she had grown. And there is basil in a pot on our balcony. I'm sure that added to the flavour. I thought it was food of the gods. And he served it on our pretty coloured Harlequin dishes.

Currently my schedule will be to go to the OTU clinic every morning. I'm on the early schedule so will be there @ 7:30ish. They will do blood tests every day. Have to check many things, including the level of one of the anti-rejection drugs. May have to play with the dosages of that one. So I take my morning dose with me to take after the blood draw. And because I'm keeping no platelets, I'll have to have platelet transfusions every day for a while. The Red Cross is HLA matching me for platelets now, but that will take several days to go into effect. Hopefully they can find matched ones for me, which will hold for a day or two. We're thinking positively.

They also run the standard tests to see when my new bone marrow has started producing cells. It won't do that until the cells have engrafted - as in settled in my empty bones and taken up permanent residency. When the new cells are engrafted and producing the new blood cells we will celebrate. This can happen as early as 14 days, but more likely it will be three weeks or so. Meds keep getting adjusted all this time.

I'm feeling a bit tired, so will go to bed soon. Don't forget tomorrow morning is free pastry at Starbucks until 10:30a. I'm looking forward to either a blueberry scone or a cheese Danish.