Wed, Sept 3 (Day 13): Took Away Pain Pump; Little Sleep

I had a bad night last night.  I went to sleep at 8:00, which means I can go four hours and still not get into the next day.  Sorry if all this math is confusing.  The point is the nights are too long, especially when I get up every hour to pee.  My urgency issues really annoy me.  I'm laying in bed questioning if I need to get up.  I look at the clock and realize it's been more than 30 minutes, so I reluctantly get up.  Suddenly, I'm in trouble and can't always get ready before the action starts.  It's just very annoying and tiring.  In preparation for my Friday release, the docs also took my pain pump away.  I wasn't using it for pain since my throat and mouth sore are much better, but the little dose of narcotic made me sleepy and took my brain off the hot, uncomfortable hospital bed.  Don't get me wrong I wasn't constantly clicking the button.  In fact the nurses thought I wasn't using it much at all, but when I had it I slept better.  This morning I asked Veronica, my favorite nurse, if she could get me a take home bag of narcotics.  She just laughed, "Yea, that's going to happen."  While I've never done drugs or smoked pot (no beer or cigarets), there's a time a place for everything.

I was grumpy all day, until my darling wife showed up...followed shortly thereafter by Katie and my good friend, Mark.  I really needed to see them all.  We had a blast talking about Katie's house hunting and Mark's daughter's wedding.  This is a wedding I'm really looking forward to attending.

So where am I at medically?  Well, I survived the original, heavy chemo, my leukemia fell from 93% of blood to 0, they found a perfect, young donor, I made it through the transplant and successfully engrafted the transplant.  This morning my ANC (white blood cell count) grew from 400 to 1,300.  Once it's above 1,000 they start preparing you to leave.  I really haven't seen much of any graft rejection.  I still have a swollen left foot from the month old blood clot.  My feet and left leg look awful from being so low on platelets.  I measured 10,000 so the hospital wouldn't release a bag till the following day.  Those little red dots joined up and essentially turned my foot red.  It's now purple and fading.  It's a complete non-issue, but looks bad, especially since the ankle is swollen. I'll get over it.  My next challenge is GVHD, graft vs. host disease.  Some people don't see problems; others have many issues.  I'll get bone marrow biopsies at days 30 and 100 which will tell a lot.  Statistics show that if one lives two years there are high odds if living 10+.  Bottom line, I've been incredibly blessed to get this far.  Back on May 28 everyone thought I was in real trouble.  God is faithful!  And, I'm not just saying that because things have gone so well for me.

Isaiah 40:28-31 Do you not know? Have you not heard?  The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary and his understanding no one can fathom it.  He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.  Even youths grow tired and weary and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint."