Day 10

Greetings from Room 7435 at University Towers, University of Nebraska Medical Center. The last three days have had its challenges. Tim’s counts have bottomed out from the chemo the week before the transplant. He has received several bags of platelets and is getting two units of blood today. His biggest problem has been intestinal distress from the chemo. He has eaten lots of yogurt, applesauce, toast and Gatorade. He tells me daily that he is looking forward to the day when he can sit down to a steak and glass of wine. I am afraid that day is a few weeks off because even when things slow down, his gut will be sensitive. At least that has been our experience from the past. His white blood count still needs to come up before he can go to outpatient status and come join me in my room in a building adjoining the hospital. At that point they will monitor his counts, see how strong he is and hopefully after a few days let us return to Lincoln. They say it takes about a month of recovery at home before a person can return to work. This is day 10 since the transplant and typically the white blood counts will start to return sometime between day 9 and 15. The sooner the better as we are both getting weary of the process. They are telling us that if they had given him a grade compared to other transplant patients, he would be an A. Everything that he has had happen including a fever a couple of nights ago are to be expected. He and I have been able to walk every day since the beginning except for last Thursday when he was feeling bad due to the fever. The blood cultures drawn at that time have not grown anything so it was probably just his body fighting to make cells. We really don’t want another blood sepsis, but they assure us that they can deal with that too. So we grow weary but we remain positive and hold on to the belief that we are not alone. We are strengthened knowing that many are calling, emailing, sending cards, and holding us in their thoughts and prayers daily. We are planning on being home by this time next week barring any complications. It never hurts to have a positive attitude. Stay tuned. Julie