Days -3, -2, and -1

Days -3 and -2 were chemo days. I had Cytoxan and Mesna along with fluids. I was hooked up to my bean pole for 48 hours. The chemo only took a couple hours but it can be rough without constant fluids. It made sleeping more than a little difficult but I managed.

Nausea was a struggle through these days. By this point an earlier medication they had given me for nausea (earlier with the Busulfan) was starting to wear off at this point. I had found that Zofran wasn’t doing much for the nausea so we had switched to Antivan for it. That was working better but still only lasted a couple hours and I could only get it every 4 hours. It lasted enough to get to the next meal so I was able to eat.

Sleep was pretty rough. The first night I didn’t take anything and I didn’t sleep at all. The next night we tried remeron. I think I slept but not well. We ended up pulling me off the remeron and antivan at night and just doing benadryl and melatonin. It’s tough to get everything figured out when there’s so much that could be contributing to my sleeplessness.

My white blood cell (WBC) and absolute neutrophil count (ANC) have continued to drop, as expected. This hopefully gives an open window for the new stem cells I’ll receive an opportunity to take over. I’m fortunately only experiencing nausea for now. So far no vomiting or diarrhea, although that might come later.

Day -1 was a “rest” day. No chemo but only a few IV meds and fluids to help prep for Day 0 to come. By noon I was unhooked from my IV pole and starting to feel some what human again. I was given the 3 day anti-nausea med again. That should help me through the first part of the stem cell acceptance. It’s a little daunting when getting something from someone else. I was able to shave my head and clean up my beard a little bit. Showering is still tough with the trifusion line but I can manage to get clean enough.

Day zero is coming.