Life in the joint

Day 10 in the joint…I got to leave the hallway today!! Monday is “chest x-ray day” around here (to make sure patients don’t develop pneumonia from being in bed all day).   They let me walk down to get my weekly chest x-ray.   Simple pleasures…but this was the first time in 4 days I’d left the 100 ft hallway of the BMT unit and usually they take patients in wheelchairs or their beds but I asked my nurse if I was allowed to walk & he said he was cool with it!  J Nurse Ryan is a cool dude! J  He has been my nurse 2 days in a row now.  I just finished a great book,  “The Art of Racing in the Rain,” and he had read it a few months ago so we had “book club” discussion about it this morning while he was getting my vitals and administering my meds.  For anyone who hasn’t read it, it’s a fantastic book (but be ready for a good cry!)

There is a “healing arts” program here on the unit and they supply patients with art supplies to keep us busy while we are here.  So far I’ve completed some origami cranes (they gave me some origami paper and the instructions) and they also gave me some colored pencils and coloring pages.  Funny how calming & relaxing coloring can be! J  I think when I get outta here I’ll donate some supplies to the program!  I’ve never been an artist but I do have fun with “structured creativity” like scrapbooking, origami, etc.  The program is completely volunteer and I’d certainly not an art therapist, by any means, but I would love to contribute supplies or volunteer some time with them once I’m back on the “outside” J lol

Another fun thing that happens here in the hospital is they play a lullaby everytime a baby is born.  Its really fun to hear that tune go off in the hallway and know that someone is welcoming a sweet baby into their family!  This morning I counted 3 babies in the span of 45 minutes…the labor and delivery unit was hopping!

 

The doc came in this afternoon and said my blood counts are doing exactly what they expected from the high dose chemotherapy & total body radiation I did last week.  My “ANC” (the count they watch the closest) went from 4000-something 2 days ago to 286 yesterday and down to 137 today.  My counts will continue to drop for the next few days (should get down to below 20) which they doc referred to as “zero” and then I’ll hover there for about a week before Kyle’s cells start producing my white blood cells.  So, it looks by the end of next week we’ll see my numbers start to creep back up and know that Ky’s cells have found their cozy home in bones and are starting to churn out my new immune system.  My nurse explained to me that once I trend back up to about 800 that means Kyle’s cells are “engrafting” and that is the first goal.  After that the doc will want to see my “ANC” at or above 1500 for several days in a row before they will consider me ready for discharge.  At this point, I’m hoping that I’m about 1/3 of the way through my hospitalization (barring any complications).  Feeling good & keeping my eye on the prize…home by the end of May!!

-Chellie