Day 5

I am sitting in the hospital room on day 5. That is five days from the reintroduction of my stem cells. The count of days started at minus 6 (-6) with the start of the chemotherapy to knock out my bone marrow. This is the twelfth day of my hospital stay.

My countdown proceeded upward to day zero – the transplant day. I received chemotherapy drugs each day during the countdown. The most eventful day was the last. I had to eat ice chips and popsicles before, during and after the administration of the chemo drug, Melphalan. Apparently, keeping a cold mouth helps to prevent or lessen mouth sores caused by the drug.

I didn’t complain – I like popsicles and there was a ready supply of grape and cherry, my favorites. Julie likes root beer flavor so I invited her to share in the mouth chilling fun.

On the day of the transplant, I broke out a sign welcoming my stem cells back and name tags for Julie and myself to avoid the awkwardness of a stem cell not remembering our names. This journey needs some light-heartedness.

Julie posted the sign on the heart monitor and I gave us both name tags to wear as we greeted my stem cells back to my body. The humor was appreciated by the medical staff and we have received many a smile and comment on our effort.

Julie and I walk each day. We wander the hallways. I have to wear a mask and gloves now whenever I leave my room because my blood counts have dropped. One of the housekeeping staff, Mark, who operates a floor cleaner, has become a friendly contact on our evening journey. From some reason, my mask and gloves is a clear give-away that he can spot from quite a distance down the corridor. Each encounter is cause for the sharing of brief pleasantries.

We have had a few welcomed visitors. Some of our visitors had to gown up and put on masks and gloves; others we have met in the large lounge with me in mask and gloves. Unfortunately, my blood count has fallen so low that I am not taking any visitors at the present time. As I hit the lowest point of the bone marrow’s shut down, my immune system has become so compromised that I am not able to fight off any invading germ.

So for now it’s Julie and the medical staff who are my daily companions – oh, and I bet we will see Mark, the floor cleaning guy, during our evening stroll. It’s always a good thing when you can share pleasantries with the people in the neighborhood.

Grace and peace,
Tim.