Day 10

Nothing new to report. white count still at 0. needed platelets today, and together will by existing throat issues, i had a slight reaction and my throat closed up a little more than usual, so that was interesting for a bit, but a quick shot of hydrocortisone made it go away, so not sweat there. that's about it. mouth and throat are feeling better now. pt guy came to visit and said that i was above average on getting around and stuff, so no sweating that. still just waiting for counts to show signs of life. netflix and farmtown for tonight. take care.

Day 9

Needed a unit of blood today, so since i didn't sleep much last night, after getting premeds this morning i cranked out about a 5 hour nap. That means i'll be up all night again, but that's a good thing since its the weekend and they show a ton of movies at night on regular programming. i know, i know... how many times can a person watch "Speed" anyway? I'll watch anything. Really into the OG versions of movies on TCM right now. Pretty sure that any blockbuster over the last five years had steve mcqueen, michael caine, or charlton heston doing it first.

So we're on day 9 post-transplant and things couldn't be more uneventful, which is a good thing. still waiting for my donor cells to engraft onto into the porous parts of my bone where my marrow was expunged by my latest round of high dose chemotherapy. again, we will know when the engraftment occurs when i start producing a steady count of white and red blood cells and platelets. as i had mentioned, i'm taking these daily shots of neupogen, which catalyzes my white blood cell growth, so over the next few days my counts might start spiking, but it wouldn't be a true indication of my actual count, so i still have, at the very least, two more weeks of in-patient care before i am released to me and steph's new local residence. it's alright though. i seem to have hit my stride and the days are actually starting to clip along a pretty fast rate. hardest part at this point is just missing my boys and girls, but i keep getting pics and videos, and that has helped.

thanks for everyone for all your thoughts and prayers. i only have one request, and this goes for anyone you may know that may be going through a tough situation. While worrying is never really a positive thing, i realize that it is a natural thing to do. i have kids, and i do my fair share of pointless worrying all the time. i do not, however, tell them that i worry about them all the time. there are plenty of ways i have planned of screwing them up in the head. this is not one of them. so please, no more "we hope you're doing well! we're all so worried about you!" comments. try "we're thinking of you" or some cheesy "our hearts go out to you" comments, but a good rule of thumb is to leave the worrying to yourselves. for most of you uber-worriers its a given anyway, so no more "we're going to miss you!" lol. take care.

Day 8

Sorry for no update yesterday. Just means nothing much happened. I started a regimen of Neupogen shots yesterday, which are these subcutaneous shots that i receive either in the arm or abdomen that will speed up my white cell growth, which is still bottomed out at 0, which is nothing unusual. hemoglobin is doing some weird stuff in that it has risen to 8.6 over the last couple of days. unfortunately this isn't indicative of the cells grafting, just that this number will fluctuate over the next few days. i needed platelets yesterday (was at 11) but there is a shortage of them here right now, so i didn't end up getting any yesterday, which was actually nice because it wasn't considered a top priority to give ME platelets, which means there are a bunch of people here that are way sicker than me. nice perception of things, i know, but they're at 6 today, so i'm getting premeds as we speak, fighting sleep trying to type. my back pain is also much better, and i was taken off of the pca thingy that constantly pumps pain meds, which was also nice, but i was starting to feeling nauseated around the clock. i still have the button for pain and that's a relief because i have a sore on the bottom of my tongue that is pretty unpleasant right now. mom just flew in, so we're in for a fun bus line tutorial since she is carless for the moment. okay, take care.

Day 6

Today is the two week mark for my current hospital stay. No transfusions of any sort today, for once. I wasn't knocked out with anything... which made the day really long! I'll definitely need platelets and blood tomorrow, but for now i'll enjoy skipping my morning and afternoon naps. Still have the back pain, but it seems to be doing a little better. Today was comprised of a lot of Sportcenter, SVU, and anything else that daytime programming chose to play to death. Rainfest 09' here in Houston today. One nurse told me this is the first time it had rained in her yard since April 27th. Someone go check out this lady's yard, as it apparently is not applicable to normal weather conditions. Had my first Houstonian male nurse today. Nothing particularly different from any of the other male nurses i've been exposed to thus far; equally annoying with an overbearring need to project his own homegrown assessment for my back pain. Yeah, we get it. You're not gay. Now stop calling me "dude". Okay, take care.

Day 5

Nothing much to report. My back pain has taken center stage for the moment, and so instead of being bothered by my constant requests for more pain medication, they have decided to give me this fun little machine that delves out pain medication constantly. It also comes with a button that i can push every 20 minutes for additional medicine, which i have yet to use, but want so badly to pushi it just because it looks fun. Ironically, as soon as they installed the machine, they gave me hyrdrocortisone as premeds for another transfusion. As i had mentioned, this totally relieves my back pain, but they are hesitant to use it for that, as steroids break down muscle tissue, and i don't have a lot to spare these days... gonna check to see if they have something that breaks down fatty tissue and ask them to use liberally. Steph went home today, much to my delight. Not because i didn't want her here, but because i'd rather her be with the kids as much as possible. I've got reinforcements watching over me though, not to mention a whole staff of professionals trained to try and fix me, so i think i'll be alright. haven't even tapped into the video games and guitar yet. still running through netflix selections, just trying to pace myself. okay, take care.

Day 4

Sorry about no update on day 3. Not much to report on when you sleep through 20 hours of it. My counts are still pretty bottomed out so i'm having to have transfusions about every other day, so even though i slept through the night and then some, around 11am they gave me more knock out meds to fight any reactions i might have to blood or platelets and before i know it, its 11:39pm. Breakfast can't get here fast enough. The upside to having transfusions is all the hyrdocortisone they give me, which really helps with this perpetual back pain i've been having thanks to the awesome beds here. Other than a little nausea due to the pain meds, everything is going pretty well. no more crazy rashes or other weird reactions in the last couple of days. Just waiting to see if the donor cells graft. Will know when my counts start coming up again. Just heard about Steve McNair. Very sad. Okay, take care.