Day 22

As I begin week number four in the clink, er...hospital, I think I can say that Saturday (Day 20), was probably rock-bottom for me. On top of the things I normally whine about I lost the ability to speak, although it turned out to be a good excuse to rest more. So Saturday was pretty rough, and I spent much of what I remember on my back. I did get some good news at the end of the day though. They do a complete blood count twice a day, and my evening white blood cell count had shown a rise from 0.1 million cells per liter of blood, which it's been holding steady at since my transplant, to 0.2. I was pretty excited to hear that. But to put that in perspective a normal person has been 4.3 and 10.8 million cells/liter, so I've still got a bit to go.

The doc's assured me that the counts tend to rebound quickly, and they were right, by Sunday evening I was up to 0.5, and this morning I'm up to 1.0. So I'm encouraged greatly by this, and I'm looking forward to starting to feel better too!

I'll probably still be pretty bad at answering the phone for the next couple of days, because it still hurts quite a bit to talk, and I'm still in pretty rough shape. I've yet to eat or drink anything in over a week as well. They keep telling me this is normal, but is little tough for me to get over. There's nothing I want more right now than to chug a huge bottle of water, and I keep having strange hallucinations similar to those old Aquafina commericals, where everyone is in a bar, partying, and being merry, but they all have huge glasses and mugs of Aquafina water instead of beer. Anyways, keep bearing with me and I'll catch up with everyone soon.

Once my counts get to certain level, the only other criteria I have to get out of here is that I need to be able to drink 2L of water per day, and not have a fever. I don't forsee the hydration part being a problem, as soon as my throat starts to heal. As for the fever, I just need to continue to rest and hope I don't pick up any infections.

Thanks to everyone for the great support, you've all been so helpful in getting me through this ridiculously tough time, and forgive me not returning phone calls, but remember that I'm going to have the next 3 months off with nothing to do but call you during work and bug you.

Take Care,
-Jeff

PS I think this is that Aquafina commerical but YouTube is blocked here so let me know if it isn't: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEc5foJ9plE