Day +15

As of today, I have had my longest hospital stay yet. Today is 22 days in a single stay.

I woke up with the same sore throat, mouth sores, and inability to swallow much. I found out that my WBC counts stayed the same and my neutrophils actually dropped a little. And then the new doctor making rounds told me that Friday was not very likely to go home. He said that I am quite far ahead of schedule--he would have expected my counts to have gone up on this Friday--but I still needed to get off the IV meds and make sure I can stabilize my levels of meds through oral administration. He said maybe this weekend...

And I felt so dejected and not-ready this morning that I was okay with it.

But as the day went on, I felt a bit better. The sun was out. I showered, I walked, I ate more than just a few bites of solid food at lunch. I did NOT nap (which was pretty tough). I listened to a podcast. I knit. I realized it didn't hurt quite as much to talk, so I talked to my nurses and CNAs. I asked if I could try to take some of my smaller pills orally and just leave the monster pills for IV one more day. I ate some solid food at dinner--and it didn't upset my stomach either. I swallowed the smaller pills.

I may not be able to get home on Friday, but I am going to try my absolute best to get home as soon as my body lets me. And I hope that my counts tomorrow will show that I'm feeling better because my neutrophils have risen again. I'm still moving forward.