Good morning everyone, I am writing to you from my hospital room, 14B-208, where I am resting very comfortably after an unusually solid night’s sleep. For some reason or another I sleep like a rock last night, woke up a couple of times and felt as if I was awake for a while, but head hit pillow and I was out. I got up around 8:15 this morning and took care some of my daily duties, which I will now highlight to give you some idea of what occupies my days.
Dailies
-riding bike – it is has been suggested by some of my nurses that I ride 4 times a day, which is a high target in my opinion, I had a mind to ask them “when was the last time you hit the bike four times in a day”, but none the less they do have my best interests at heart and apparently riding the bike regularly can dramatically affect the rise of white cells, which means I’ll be out of here sooner. While I don’t get on the bike 4 times a day I do make an effort to do get at least 3km in per day, 6km if I feel up to it.
-mouth guards – as a result of the radiation treatment my mouth is undergoing some rude happenings, it isn’t too sore yet, although comfortable is not a word I use often. As a result of my radiation, received on transplant day I have to wear two mouth guards, top and bottom, coated with fluoride for 5 minutes a day, FOR LIFE, or so the Dental Assistant instructed me. Now these mouth guards are fine, nothing too inconvenient, but then again I don’t have a whole lot on my plate these days with regards to a rigorous schedule, we’ll have to see how things go.
That said they did have pictures of neglected teeth after radiation treatment and they could easily act as motivation FOR LIFE, I plan to leave it as a wait and see thing. For you inquiring minds, to my knowledge the major problem caused by radiation is dryness, thus increasing the risk for cavities, and the real problem is that your brain gets used to given level of moisture and if this level is too low your chances for complications increases. That’s about as well as I can put it, bottom line, stick the fluoride on the guards and shove ‘em in your mouth for 5 minutes a day.
– Vitals – of course here I am not a much an active participant as the subject, I have my full vitals taken 3 times a day, every 8 hours, they include heart rate, temp., sitting and lying blood pressure and weight, which can be most inconvenience at 6:00 a.m. when your having a killer sleep, it’s not quite like the good old days on 4 North A when all I had to do was role over and give a Nurses access to my Catheter. Of course added to those vitals are my blood levels, which are checked every morning at 6 just like home.
Those are the three things that I can think of that are daily occurrences in my schedule, I haven’t been eating a whole lot, nothing really, except I did try a scrambled egg this morning and so far so good, but outside of that I haven’t even been drinking as the nausea was quite bad for a while so the Doc suggested I stick with the IV fluids, which I decided to continue. In the past day or so I have begun to drink a little more, but nothing worth talking about. Of course the other daily that I didn’t mention was the IV fluids, which are continuously flowing, as I mentioned before my Hickman Catheter has two ports and since transplant they both have been going 24 hours a day, as I receive my food and fluid, my medications, and my chemo through my Hickman. Chemo, I didn’t mention this earlier for no particular reason but post-transplant I receive four doses of chemo on Days 1,3,6, and 11, which means that I only have one dose left. This stuff is supposed to dramatically increases the chances of transplant success as it, like all other chemo, ensures I don’t have a white cell to fight with as right now we must be in a passive state and invite my Dad’s marrow in to play, no fighting right now, kind of a focus on everyone getting along, joy and togetherness. If you know what I mean.
I have been told that things are going well, which I am glad to hear and that most other patients are in much more pain, especially in the mouth area, than I am so we’ll keep things going as they have been. I’m going to start to get a little adventurous with the food, which means nothing considering I haven’t a thing but for this morning. Side note: I’m not allowed to touch fast food for THREE months, but I’ll tell you more about my Do’s and Don’ts later. That seems to be enough for today, I’ll let you all get back to whatever you were doing before you saw my name in your inbox and you’ll hear from me again soon.
Take care and stay tuned, as my best is yet to come.
Geoff
#4
