Four Days In

Sorry, I’ve been slacking. The chemo caught up with me a little, I think. I’ve got a little nausea and some GI distress, but that’s the extent of it so far. One of my tasks is to get as much exercise as possible, so I’ve been out walking the ward, trying to push myself. This afternoon I also did a few minutes on a stationary bike.

With the transplant I received 13.74 MILLION stem cells. I’ve been told this is a very large number of cells. The process was a little anti-climactic. Dennis and Sloan and Mark cut up and kept me in good spirits.

I had a very sad conversation this morning with a mother whose son was supposed to be checking onto the ward for a transplant, but he’s got some rare blood cancer from Africa and instead of responding to the chemo his cancer has come back and now he’s non-responsive. I think he might have left the world today-there was a big huddle down at his room later this afternoon. There’s a lot of sadness up here on the ninth floor.

Me, I’m trying to eat things and drink things and walk around in circles up here. I’ve had a few guests that have brightened my day more than I am probably able to show. My phone continues to blow up with folks checking on me. Mark has been fantastic. I’ve been moody and a little morose but having Mark here and doing stuff we ordinarily do has given me a sense of normalcy, whatever that is.

My next hurdle is called The Basement. It’s the period of time when my white blood cells and platelets are going to be virtually non-existent. The little swimmers are making their way into my bone marrow to start what they call engraftment, where the positive stuff starts to happen. In the meantime, I’m going to be weak and sallow for a few days before the building process begins. Supposedly this timeframe is going to suck pretty badly. I’m going to try to post during this time but I can’t guarantee how lucid I’m going to be. I’m hearing all kinds of conflicting reports. Maybe my virile little stem cells will make the basement less scary. I’ll try to keep y’all informed.