Days +1 and +2

The days after my transplant were good. I only had a few IV meds to take and I was unhooked most of the day. I felt pretty decent in the mornings. It was just later towards the afternoon when I’d start feeling the nausea again. Neither day was particularly outstanding. It was just nice to have to be hooked up to my IV pole or feel bad. Day +2 I actually felt the best and had a pretty decent day.

Coming up I’ve got 2 more days of chemo. Days +3 and +4 are Cytoxan and Mesna. I’ll be hooked up to fluids for 48 hours while the chemo runs. The chemo itself only takes about 2 hours to complete but I’ve got to be hooked up to fluids for the whole time. It makes sleeping difficult with 2 transfusion lines running into your chest but we’re managing the sleep decently well enough.

My WBC and ANC continue to fall. My platelets along with it although they had gotten high enough before admission that I haven’t needed platelets yet, but I have needed blood every other day or every 3rd day.

Docs say my counts will continue to fall and eventually bottom out before they start to recover. Once recovery starts we will assume it’s my new cells and somewhere around Day +30 we’ll look at blood peripheral for chimerisms (meaning blood cells with different genetic content).

Now that the easy part is finished. We’ve got to look towards upcoming weeks. I’ll start getting some strong anti-nausea meds and will start the anti-rejection meds after that. It’s all a waiting game (much like the same game we’ve been playing).