Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted...
View Article  Day 31 - At last!
We're preparing for me to go home!
 
Over the past few days my IV meds have gradually been replaced with pills, tablets and capsules of various shapes, sizes, and colours. The changes have all gone well, and so later today the last of them - my steroid injections - will be changed over. 
 
At the same time my diet has moved a notch back towards normal. A couple of hours ago I had my first 'solids' for what feels like a fortnight, though it's probably been a little less.  Two blobs of mashed potato and a little gravy.  I know it's not much - but it wasn't rice water, I enjoyed it, and it's stayed down without effort - so I'm happy.
 
Now we wait and see.  As long as I handle the drug regime and the food well over the next couple of days they plan to send me home during the early part of next week.   I've been here in the clink for 6 weeks now and its enough.  All my swellings have gone, most of the rashes, my skin has stopped scaling and flaking off for the most part though it's still ridiculously dry. My mouth is sensitive but not unduly so, etc etc.  For the first time in weeks I feel well enough to think about looking after myself at home, and I want to be with my ladies again. 
 
Of course, being at home won't be easyI'm still going to need to be in as complete isolation as we can manage. I'm not allowed visitors for weeks, and I'll be wearing N95 masks whenever I go out for 6 months.  There will be drugs to take and my Hickman line to care for, temperature checks, skincare, eye care, hospital checkups, blood tests, etc,etc -  and diet is going to be an absolute nightmare for the first three months at least.
 
But I'll be out of here and able to say "that's the transplant done" which is huge!.
 
 
View Article  Day 15 - Numbers
Date       27    28    29    30    1     2     3     4
Day        7     8     9     10    11    12    13    14
ANC Count  0.01  0.01  0.03  0.3   1.0   1.05  1.05  0.87
 
Numbers. Lots of them. Assuming the formatting doesn't mess up when I post this they're in a nice little table.   The bottom line is the one to watch.  ANC stands for <mumble> Neutrophil Count.A= aggregate perhaps..  Neutrophils are one of several types of white blood cell - their job is to gobble bacteria and fungi.  I need lots of them. 
 
The fact that those numbers are non zero is a Good Thing! It means that some of the friendly orange strangers have taken up abode in my marrow and are making white blood cells!  This isn't full engraftment - the docs will agree  that has happened when I have 3 days with out artificial help and a rising count over 1.0.   So far the count has risen dramatically because they've been taking lessons from old school Tour de France cyclists and giving me hormones to up the neutrophil production.  We stopped the booster jabs for a couple of days and the count held and then dropped.  No problem.  Another 'vitamin' shot today and I'll be back over 1.0 again tomorrow.
 
The level 1.0 (billion per litre) is a support level at which I can pretty much maintain my body against normal levels of attack so they will maintain that until I can do it myself.
 
In the meantime progress - my mouth is getting better - I can breathe, sleep and swallow without pain. we've stopped the morphine so I can pee without 'hesitancy' (a nice medical term). The various rashes on arms, legs, chest, and back are subsiding - but my ears are hot, scratchy, and sensitive - perhaps the first signs of GVHD.
 
I'm still not eating. I tried and managed a boiled egg this morning. at lunch I had a chicken wing and half a tinned peach - but my stomach, er, rejected them an hour or too later.  And the diarrhoea is back.  
 
So - some good - some less pleasant.  But its all change, and change is progress, and progress is what I need.  I'm still weak and tired - sleeping a lot and keeping still most of the time I'm awake so as not to disturb my bowels. I haven't checked my mail for days - so it's not just you I'm ignoring - no one is getting replies :-)