Just thought I would send another update. I went into the bone marrow transplant unit on Monday, March 23rd. Got settled in to my room and around noon they began fluids and pre meds for the Melphlan. I began chewing ice at 4:30 and stopped at 9:30. The Melphlan doesn't take that long to go in, but it tends to create mouth sores and chewing ice helps prevent that. It is supposed to close the capillaries in your mouth so the mouth sores won't happen. They also give you a mouth rinse that you do four times a day, which is also supposed to ward off mouth sores. So, my ice chewing is over, but I am still doing the mouth rinse. Wednesday was a rest day so no meds or anything. I have been walking on the tread mill for about 15-20 minutes which helps with the boredom. Thursday my stem cells were injected back in; about 5 syringes full which took about 30 minutes. No side effects from that either. So, today is Day +2 from the transplant. We are praying for no side effects, like mouth sores, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or high fevers. They watch for all of that and treat them as they come. They expect my white counts to come down today or tomorrow and then I will get a blood transfusion, which we also pray will have no side effects. If everything continues well, I will go home on Day +10, April 5th.
My white count today is 1.5 and Dr. Reddy expects it to drop again tomorrow. That is about it so far. I will let you know how things are going as the come. Thanks for all the prayers. That is the only thing that keeps me sane in here. Speaking of which, I think I will go and walk on the tread mill again.