Post-Transplant Day 9

It’s been a little rough these past few days, but nothing—I repeat, NOTHING—like we anticipated.

As long as I have the energy to, say, give myself a shower and sit up in bed afterward while the clouds clear from my brain, I’m going to give it my best shot to write. I started this post on post-transplant day 6, but I just didn’t have the strength to write more than the first sentence. Since that time, I have had some absolutely wonderful nurses, including tonight’s RN Nancy, who just hung a small bag of platelets, my first transfusion. This is to give my beleaguered bone marrow a boost, if you will.

Technically, I suppose the stem cell harvesting was a type of re-infusion, in which my blood was drawn through one tube to the apheresis machine where the stem cells were extracted and the remaining blood product reintroduced into my body through the second tube. That was too specialized, I think, which is why it’s called apheresis and not a transfusion.

Many of you have wondered how I am doing and count on my blog updates to keep you advised. That means the world to me, and I want to keep up on my end. It’s been a little rough these past few days, but nothing—I repeat, NOTHING—like we anticipated. I feel that I should knock on the proverbial wood before I jinx something, but I don’t believe in that kind of hocus-pocus anyway. I believe in something much greater, and that is my Father God and your prayers.

While I have felt very, very lethargic, I have not vomited, run a fever, produced a crop of mouth sores, or experienced any of the other unpleasant side effects that generally hit between days 6 and 10. In fact, my worst side effect so far has been pain, and it came on fairly suddenly last Tuesday or Wednesday night. (Time tends to be an insubstantial thing, and it’s hard to keep track of.) I began to have severe pain in my lower back, pelvis, hips, and legs, mostly at night. It was a dull, pressure-filled pain that would begin mildly, then increase in waves of intensity and radiate down my legs.

Two types of pain meds have kept it in check but understanding what’s going on is something else entirely. On Thursday when Dr. Rhodes, my niece’s brother-in-law, came to visit, I told him the pain from the night before was primarily in my knees, and it felt as though something might erupt through my kneecaps.

“That sounds like some engraftment might be going on,” Hunter told me.

That is just what Dr. Asche suggested to me as well. Engraftment is when my stem cells finally make their way to my marrow and begin growing. That’s not usually seen until post-transplant day 11.

What am I to make of that?

Part of me remains cautiously optimistic that I will see my numbers rise very soon and be able to get out of this hospital, perhaps much sooner than anticipated, but only time and blood work will tell. For now, I await the return of my nurse and someone else, who she said would need to be here for the transfusion I am about to receive another bag of platelets. It is now 3:40 a.m., and I am quite certain I will be back to sleep afterwards in no time.

Wood plaque that was a gift from my sister Shelly