T+6

No writing simply means I'm not doing well enough to share. I am more than happy to share my progress, but I've been feeling so worn out all I do is lay in bed and sleep. I have to force myself to walk a mile everyday, which they want to strengthen my body and keep from getting bedsores.

I haven't eaten a full meal of anything in three days. The nausea medications keep me from vomiting, but putting something on my stomach is simply too much. They have me drinking Ensure or Boost twice a day, and give me IV supplements to keep me going. I feel like canned dogfood, but the good news is it should only last through Sunday. By Sunday or Monday, I should be feeling better.

I have basically had all the side effects they warned us about, and they are just as bad as I imagined they would be. I've been running a temp over 100.5 for 2.5 days now, which drives my heart rate up to about 120, even laying in bed. So I feel exhausted.

My Neutrophils are now uncountable on the daily blood test, and my white blood cells are below 0.1. Now, we're just waiting for the engrafting and creating new WBC so I can feel better about things. My RBC and Platelets are so low I am getting transfusions every day. Two units of A-, and a unit of platelets.

Last night, I sneezed and my nose started bleeding. Fortunately my nurse came in the room just then for something else and saw blood flowing everywhere. We quickly got a sample to the lab, and determined I didn't have enough platelets to stop the bleeding, so I got platelets transfused. Now, I'm terrified to blow my nose. My nose bled for a solid hour while we waited for the tests to come back.

Now I get blood tests, urine tests, stool samples, vitals(blood pressure, heart rate, temp), and any other stupid probing or prodding of my body they can dream up, every four hours. Its a veritable party around here.

Fortunately, the nursing and PCT staff here are ANGELS. They are absolutely terrific. They handle everything calmly, efficiently and thoroughly, and manage to keep me on an even keel at the same time. They are all in love with HOPE though and practically beg me to get better so Honi can bring her by to visit. She can't come while I'm running a temp or having any other issues.

Exhaustion wins, I'm taking a nap. If I'm up to it I'll write more tomorrow, otherwise till we meet again. T