Days 5-8 (Sunday - Wednesday)

Alas and alack! I am on the verge of departing the hospital and have been remiss and have not been updating my blog!

Mainly I have been way too lethargic to write it up...

But I will correct this now.

Sunday

So, by Sunday I was really wallowing in my sadness and grumpiness. 

Fortunately I was also very sleepy, so I slept most of the time and few had to deal with it. It does not escape me that I am on day five of my five day stay.

I had a great nurse--and really continued to have them throughout my stay--and that and a little bit of energy brought my spirits up by the evening. 

I got out of bed for the first time in a couple of days and got on the computer for a short while. A small victory and by the end of the day my mood was much better.

Force Feeding

One thing that was still affecting me was my version of nausea. I never really got a queasy feeling, and only occasionally a slight gagging feeling when I smelled the food they brought me (but everyone might get that feeling with some of this food--ba dum dum), I just was not interested in eating.

Now if you know me--this is most uncharacteristic.

But--nothing appealed. I would eat, because I was supposed too, and some of it even tasted pretty good, but I just didn't really want to eat. My body was telling me to stop--it's not interested and stop swallowing that stuff.

No repercussions (like my body wanting to vomit). 

Its just hard to eat when everything is telling you not to.

Monday and, well, Tuesday, and, well, Wednesday too

These three days, much like Sunday, had some periods of utter exhaustion where it was all I could do to muster up the energy to pee into a jug, and some periods where I felt pretty good and could make it to the chair and use my laptop.

TV, it isn't just for TVs anymore...

I never did get the TV to quite work, but I did reacquaint myself with Hulu and caught up on Dollhouse. I'm really liking the premise and the "business" of it. I just wish we could focus on the premise and some of the other operatives cause I don't really care much about Echo the main character. 

But there it is.

And if you like Sci Fi and for some reason I have never told you to watch Firefly, all the (14) episodes and the follow-up big-screen movie, Serenity, are on Hulu right now.

Visits

Jen visited every day I have been here, and that was wonderful. We talked about all sorts of things, and had great visits--I really needed them.

Almost home...

As I write this, it is Wednesday, I am on my last bag of chemo, and I will get to go home. 

We are having to work out some billing questions on Neupogen shots, whether to do those at home which is through a prescription or outpatient. Apparently they are pricey and if I do outpatient, I think that they are covered 100%, unless its still through a prescription--I don't know--its just a little more of the big insurance puzzle.

Anyway--after this bag of chemo and once we know how I am getting neupogen, I think I am good to go...

What's Next?

Glad you asked!

Over the next few weeks my white blood counts and neutrophils, and other thongs in my blood will collapse down to minuscule levels, and I can catch a cold if someone sneezes upwind a block away. I'll be doing my best to avoid diseases and their carriers (namely people with colds and children--who carry them in spades) and sequester myself away. 

If I can make it through the 2-3 weeks, to the point of having a healthy white blood count without catching a fever, then I get to stay home the whole time.

However, if I do "spike" a fever, I need to come back into the hospital to be monitored and presume I stay until my counts are high. (As the Infectious Disease doctor said to me regarding fevers and my treatment: "It's not a question of if, it's a question of when. You will get a fever.")

And after those two to three weeks, whether at home or in the hospital, once I have a healthy count, I get a week break to slowly start to feel normal again.

Then I do this all again.

Hopefully for the last time...