Monday, November 10, 2008

[11-10-08] Totally Acclimated (Day +7)

[10:52am]
     Here's my counts:
       WBC: 0.1 (0.1 yesterday)
       Hematocrit: 29.2 (29.5 yesterday)
       Platelets: 18,000 (32,000 yesterday)
       Hemoglobin: 10.5 (10.5 yesterday)

     So, I haven't entered the "recovery phase" yet. Basically, I've been told that once the WBC starts to go up, then I will have begun recovery and all my symptoms will begin to improve.
     Naturally, I'm paying a lot of attention to when that day occurs -- I look forward to a reduction in "mouth pain." (The only other major symptom is the myriad of skin problems.)

***

     It was only a week ago that I had my stem-cell transplant -- for me, it seems like the time has flown by. I guess that's a darn good thing to feel -- that time flies in the BMT ward. Probably a bit unusual too...
     Pre-transplant was a different story -- that was generally a pretty rough time (The ICU, the chemo, the nausea/vomiting). On the other hand, once I was moved into isolation (single room) things rapidly got much better. By then I was only concerned with skin problems and mouth pain. Once I began Fentanyl for mouth pain and religiously began applying skin care stuff, I found that I was no longer counting the days until departure... time was moving faster; I was enjoying myself.

     I guess my point is that I have completely acclimated myself to my particular room in the BMT ward. I have an established routine For the time being, this is my new home. It is nice.

3 comments:

Veronica said...

Glad you're feeling settled - we're an amazingly adaptive species!!

Hopefully you'll aclimatize to the outside world again just as quickly :P

Sounds like you're doing brilliantly.....onwards and upwards (especially those WBCs!)........Vx

Skymist said...

You must be feeling somewhat better, since yesterday the four of us played the adventure board game "Runebound" for almost 8 hours. That was fun. You were catching up to me there, at the end.

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear that you are feeling at ease with things. Every day seems to be a bit better than the last.

Just wait until those counts start climbing! Then there will be no stopping you Austin.