Day 17

I'm officially into my third week in the hospital, which without a doubt, has been the toughest. Like I was saying in a previous post I'm 'immunosuppressed', which means all the damage done by the radiation and chemo can't heal on its own. Unfortunately, this had made my mouth, throat, and stomach all violently painful. It hurts so bad that I haven't been able to eat or drink anything since Sunday. They do have some helpful elements around to keep the pain down, the most important of which is morphine, setup so I can give myself a moderate dose just by pressing a button. Also I have one of those suction tubes the dentist uses to clean up your saliva, this thing has been great. My newest toy looks and works like an airbrush but sprays a mouth rinse all over my mouth, it's pretty neat, though I'm still getting used to it.

I'm told things will get better when my white blood cell count begins to recover, which they typically expect around day +10 (next Monday for me). I'm currently on day +5. I'm taking things day by day (actually hour by hour), and coping pretty good.

I also got my first fever yesterday, it's very common and usually represents some sort of infection, but has cleared in about 12 hours with a change in my antibiotics, so I'm very happy about that. I'm hoping not to 'spike' too much more.

Thanks to everyone for the support, you've all been great, and forgive me for not returning calls as it's kind of hard to talk much at this point (typing is significantly easier). Hope this message finds everyone well, and I'll check in soon.

-Jeff