Day -3

Today's word is sweaty.

I started the morning sweaty because I actually slept for a long time last night. Hospital beds are gross and the mattresses are plastic, thus the sweat. Greg's going to try to find an old twin mattress topper to bring in, but I definitely woke up sweaty.

Then the sun came out and the temperature was in the mid-70's! Even though I only experienced it through my window, I got terribly sweaty sitting in the sun.

And I worked up a sweat several times today--riding the bike before lunch, trying to squeeze in 10 laps before my afternoon chemo, more laps after chemo and after dinner, and doing arm exercises with resistance bands.

Sweat is good. It almost makes me feel normal!

On rounds this morning, Dr. Longo said that my results came back from the lab in Washington State and that they could increase my dose of Busulfan. I went from 192 mg (first two) to 240 mg (second two). This is good because as long as my body can take it (thus far evidenced by my liver function tests, the blood lab tests sent to Washington, and how I'm doing), we want to knock out as much of the marrow cells as possible (thus myeloablative chemo). This gives the best chance for the donor marrow to take and do what it should do. (Reward for drinking so little alcohol all my life?)

I only have one round of each chemo left now--tomorrow morning and tomorrow afternoon. I'm comfortable with my room, the floor, the menu choices for meals, and all my staff. I'm working my way through podcasts (loving Sawbones and binged the Prince 1999 tour series), knitting, and spending so much time on Facebook drooling over the beautiful outdoor bike rides, walks, kayaks and runs that you all are doing for me while I'm stuck indoors. What an amazing mood-lifter!

And for those of you who asked how to find my window since you live near Froedtert and want to bike or walk or run past, this window is in the lounge a few rooms down from me. It's on the 9th floor of CFAC in the SE corner. Just west of it is room 8, then 7, then I'm in room 6. Each room has two wide and two narrow windows. If you ride or run or walk by, text me and I'll try to look out and wave. :)