Mon, Nov 3

 I moved from ICU to  the 8th floor around 2 PM. I took catnaps consistently from 2 to 5 PM. Last night I battled with pain to get through the night. They would give me morphine interveniously. The morphine would break the pain to help me to sleep, but only for an hour at a time. I would struggle to sleep between the times I couldn't take it.  The morphine made my thinking muddled. I had hallucinations and couldn't determine whether it was reality or not. It was very disorientiing. I thought I called my brother at 9 am but it was really 9pm.

A doctor from ICU listened to my chest. It was a lot better. The neurology doctors dragged a few new med students along when they came by to show them my rare condition. The surgerions also came by. It sounds like that the nerve biopsy may happen tomorrow They are concerned about low platelets. I will have an infusion to increase them probably tomorrow before the surgery. My  platelets are now around 20,000, they want them around 40,000. I asked him about putting the feeding tube in. They said not right now because they want to get in and out quickly for the nerve biopsy. Dr. V my oncologist  is waiting for the nerve biopsy. If it shows leukemia it will help her to determine what chemo drugs to use. If it is HVGD, it will help determine the steroids to use. She wants to load me up with fluids before I start the chemo. If they do the biopsy early in the day and get the results back, chemo should start tomorrow. If it's late in the day I may still get some fluids but the chemo wouldn't start till the next day.

The speech therapist came by and is my new best friend. She said that I could have ice chips 4 times a day. Chewing ice chips felt glorious, after not eating or drinking for five days. Chewing ice chips is better then…well, it's better than a new car. She also gave me exercises to do to improve my swallowing. I had two major bathroom accidents last night and today. The nurses are great.

And if your [lateral nerve on the outside of your left foot] causes you to sin, [have the surgeon] cut it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. (Matthew 5:30 ESV).

   "This too shall pass", said Doug from the portable potty.