Day +4

Today was mostly more of the same as yesterday. My nurse kindly said to expect this level of exhaustion and discomfort for "several days," and my face lit up, but then I clarified that I'd gotten marrow and not peripheral cells, and she said, "oh, it'll probably be closer to a few weeks." And I knew that, but boy was I excited about only a few days for a bit!

My blood cells are still in the same ballpark--some counts went up a bit and some went down. Since I got another dose of the methotrexate yesterday, they're expected to keep trending down. No transfusions yet, though.

I got magnesium via IV again today, but so far my potassium is holding at normal levels.

My diet has switched to more bland foods, but so far I've been able to keep eating solid foods. I am just dreading the inevitable switch to liquid nutrition. I did try a protein shake with dinner today and it wasn't terrible, so maybe my dread is misplaced.

I was having a tough time because the exhaustion (and stomach issues) made it so I felt that I was not able to get very many laps toward the Marrow-thon. But my nurses (and the PTs) assured me that even a few laps make a world of difference in recovery and energy level, so I did a five lap walk. Then when I entered it on my form, I did some math and realized I only needed four more laps to hit the full Marrow-thon count. So after a nap, I did the last four laps. :)

I'm kind of digging my hair. Too bad it'll be gone again in about a week.

When I was talking to Dr. Shaw this morning about the annoyances I'm experiencing, she mentioned all sorts of things (mostly meds) that they can try to make me more comfortable. I know that all meds bring side effects (some worse than others), and it just seems that, unless symptoms are preventing me from eating, sleeping, etc. that I'd rather minimize adding more layers to my treatment. (I think that when I mention things, my providers try to make things better, so I'm not blaming them. But everyone has different levels of comfort.) So I told her that it wasn't so much that I was asking for something to be done, but I wanted to make sure that my "complaints" were not jeopardizing my care and that if something could be prevented by treating it early, that's why I mentioned it. She reassured me that all the things I've experienced so far are very much on track, expected and normal. And I said I would love to be a boring, normal patient for the duration of this. She said the nicest thing. She said that medical providers love boring patients; an interesting patient isn't "good." But then she said, "you are a very interesting person, but thus far you have not been an interesting patient." I am going to do my best to be the most boring patient for the rest of my stay--and beyond!