D-Day Plus 4

Seattle, WA, 50 degrees and raining.

I started developing a fever on Monday evening.  The transplant took place successfully on Tuesday.  Wednesday the fever increased to the point of needing to see the triage nurse at SCCA.  By 8:00 in the evening, it had risen to 103.6 degrees so we came to the University of WA Medical Center and I was admitted to room 8204.  My blood counts have continued to decline to the point where the white blood cells are at zero.  And I have no immune system at this point.  It appears that we will be in the hospital for 2 to 3 weeks until Hanna's stem cells begin to replicate and create a new immune system in my body.  I had chemo yesterday for 10 hours and again today for 10 hours which only adds insult to injury.  But hopefully it will be my last chemo treatment.  I'm battling intense loss of appetite and nausea.  Just the thought of food almost makes me sick.  I force myself to eat anything and essentially I have three jobs: stay hydrated, try to eat something and get as much exercise as possible. 

Because I am so weak, I am dictating this blog to Hanna and she is typing it for me. 

Hanna here - It is somewhat disconcerting to watch the nurses gown-up in a full-body plastic hazmat gown complete with a clear, plastic face mask in order to even hook up the chemo drugs.  If they aren't supposed to get anything on themselves, are we entirely certain that it's a good idea to put these chemicals directly into his blood stream?  Well, I guess that's the way chemotherapy works.  Poison the patient to the point of almost killing him and then hope that what survives will be strong enough to bring him back to health.  

Robin here - Nights are the most difficult time of the day.  When I have Cytoxan, they hydrate me so much that I am up every 30-45 minutes going to the bathroom.  You can't really get any restful sleep so you just feel exhausted all the time.  Kriss has been a life-saver staying the night with me to help get me up and down out of bed.  Right now she is back at the Anderson house trying to get some sleep before she returns later this afternoon.  Since Wed, she has only been away for about 3 hours.  My fever fluctuates from 101.6 to 103.6 and they have done a complete work-up to try to find a source of some infection, but they have come up empty.  This is not uncommon.  Many people who develop this "mystery fever" never find the source and when their new immune system kicks in, it goes away.  We are looking at 2-3 weeks of being in the hospital which is probably where we need to be right now considering the total lack of immune system. 

Hanna is going back to Kelso today.  Cleo is here until Monday.  My brother, Tommy, is coming back from the Yakima valley on Monday, so we will have plenty of help.  Kriss and I want to thank all of you for your cards and letters and prayers and support during this challenging time.  Hopefully I will feel better next week and can get back to writing my normal blog.