Mom’s gone home

Well it’s a bit lonely on the ward tonight. Micki just left to cover Kassie and Molly as they sleep and my Mom had to go back and take care of my Dad so he doesn’t go too stir crazy. The good news is I’m feeling pretty decent. Worst event of the day was vomiting up one of the meds.

So right now no fever, pretty perky engery levels, a mouth that has sores, but is still usable, a blood blister that finally broke above my catheoder and the ever present need to run to the bathroom dragging my pole every two hours.

Micki cheered me up a lot, I think she’s getting better sleep with Joan here helping. She got me to play putt-putt golf in the hallways and we worked halfway through a puzzle. She’s always been good at being a spark plug.

I said tonight to Kassie over the phone and I sorta lost it. I’m really sensing how much I miss seeing, holding, kissing, Kassie and Molly. Hopefully a few more days and the counts will be back up. I really need to get out of the cell.

My stem cells are back

I slept most of the day they reinfused my stem cells. It’s a little bit of a non-event it only takes ten minutes. Today has been better, but I stil nap a lot. They’re a bit worried about by bloody noses, but I had millions of bloody noses as a kid so I’m not so concerned. I can eat again, basically a simple diet of Special K, warm 7-UP, spaghetti, PBandJ, and the occassional ice cream. Given the time I have left I can make it.

My White Blood Cells spiked down to 0.1 on a good scale of 4-11 today so I’m all setup for my old stem cells to takeover. Sorta scary tough knowing how easily it is to be infected.

On a high note I got a round little box from the Gibbscrew memebers with a spanking new iPod. It’s engraved “Eddie’s iPod Get Well Soon! Oww!” which I’m taking as a cameo refernce.

Things have reached a bit of a routine, Kassie is making a short trip over after school, because she misses her Dad. Mom is here in the morning and afternoon. And Micki brings over dinner late and hangs out. Nice to have a safety net.

So far I’m surviving

Not a lot of enery to night, but between Micki and I we got a dialup setup. This probably means video conferencing won’t work tomorrow, but we’re going to attempt it. Right now the worst part is the nasaua that leads to acid reflux and vomitting, but so far only twice and I’m getting some more meds for it.

Going In

Tomorrow is D-Day. I’ll be checking into the hospital tomorrow to undergo the stem cell transplant. I’m ready for it, the waiting has gotten old. This is probably the biggest physical challenge I’ll undergo this lifetime, though I could attempt a marathon. It’s mostly a matter of staying positive and charging through. Right now I’m completely ready, that will probably change after a few days of chemo.

I have one major focus, internet access. I’m going to bug the heck out of the staff to setup my internet access. I picked up an iSight camera and we already have an iBot at home so Kassie and Molly can say goodnight to me every night. Feel free to ping me if you see me online, I may not answer right away, but I’ll try.

So wish me good luck out there. If you want a preview of what I’m about to do try this site.

T-6 days

Only 6 days to go until I head into the hospital. I feeling pretty good right now in the nauseau is almost completely gone. Unfortunately I aquired a cold on Sunday so I’m sniffiling and taking a lot of sudafed. The doctors and nurses assure me the cold shouldn’t make a difference. Everything’s still on schedule.

The stem cell collection went swimmingly. It only took 1 day of collection, which is basically sitting in a chair hooked up a rather large machine to get twice as much stem cells as they’ll need. Everyone tells me thats a good sign, I can produce a lot of stem cells which comes in handy after the last nuking with chemo when I’m in the hospital. Apparently the average collection is 2.7 days.

Micki informed my that my nephew Zak, who’s 4, was very upset when he saw a picture of me with no hair. His mom had told him about the cancer and that I was sick a few times, but it didn’t really sink in for him. It’s hard to explain these things to 4 year olds. I still wonder how worried Kassie really is, she looked at me with big saucer brown eyes while they changed the bandages on my PICC line today at the infusion center. I think she worries a lot more than she lets on. Still she played the waving game hiding behind the nurse and waving as she changed the bandages.

And I saw ‘The Incredibles’ over the weekend, very nice to see a movie and be out again. Unfortunately it was a little to intense for Kassie, she’s been having nightmares about it sense. Sometimes experiments don’t work out for parents.

I’m just really looking forward to having the whole episode behind me soon.