Day +13, full day

7:00 am post:

My labs show that my white blood cells jumped from 0.1 to 0.3 last night and for the first time in almost a week I have (a few) neutrophils!

Engraftment seems to be working. :)


7:00 pm post:

All of my labs were good (relatively speaking) this morning--no transfusions needed! A bonus of being on IV fluids around the clock is that they can give me IV fluids with magnesium in them so I don't need a separate magnesium IV.

My mouth is feeling lots better, and my throat is less swollen, although the pain and tenderness stretches farther down, so swallowing is still difficult. I was able to eat a few bites of solid food both at lunch (mashed potatoes and gravy) and dinner (chicken and wild rice soup), so I call that a win! I'm hopeful that my neutrophils will keep coming and I'll be even more healed overnight.

I checked another box off today--I'm no longer marked hazardous!  :) I've had to wear a bright green bracelet indicating that I have chemo in my blood since the first day I was here, and there's a marker on my door indicating the same. As of 6 pm tonight, that's out of my system! :)

I've had a list of four tasks to do daily since I came to the hospital: walk, do oral care at least 4x/day, shower, use CHG (antibacterial) wipes. Almost every day I have done all four, but this weekend was a struggle and on Saturday I only did two of them. Today I did all four again (although I only managed four laps).

My wonderful friend Linda, in between working full-time as a nurse, converted some of my old t-shirts into snap-sided shirts that I can wear while hooked up to the IV. It's amazing how much better I feel in a real shirt!

I'm not completely healed, and am still getting the majority of my meds through the IV, not eating enough, and sleeping way too much, but I have turned the corner. It's a really good feeling!