Hard to believe I’ve been here already for ten days. So hopefully about the halfway point.
Today my white blood cell count reached the 0.0 level, as expected. So for the time being, I have no immune system. On Saturday I will start receiving injections of Neupogen, to help stimulate my stem cells to rebuild the immune system. From Saturday, they expect that to take seven to ten days.
Still mild side effects. Mostly related to the entire length of my alimentary canal. It’s amazing how conscious the staff is to ameliorating any pain issues. I have a standing order for morphine for a sore mouth/sore throat! Pretty heavy stuff for a sore throat, but they tell me that’s standard. I will only use it if things get a lot worse – they’ve also given me all sorts of mouthwashes including lidocaine. I have only used the bicarbonate mouthwash so far but will use the lidocaine tonight.
I have cut back on my food intake, after eating like a pig last week. Mostly because of the possible mouth pain / alimentary canal issues. When I came in on the ninth, I weighed 161 pounds, which was a four or five pound weight gain over the holidays. On chemo the first six days, my weight went up to about 165, but this morning was about 159. I stopped using the dumbbells after the transplant (that was the recommendation) but have used this little cycling machine they have in the room, for about 30 minutes a day. It’s a little machine that doesn’t give you any real workout, but it’s better than nothing.
By the time I get out of here, I may be back to my old rugby-playing weight of about 150! Haven’t been there in over seventeen years.
Leave a Reply