The Numbers Continue to Surprise and Pay Off!
This BMT recovery thing really is a numbers game. They tell you everything.
When I entered the hospital, I received four days of chemotherapy, which put my white blood cell count at around 0.0. “The better to introduce someone else’s bone marrow into your system, my dear.”
After the new bone marrow was transplanted (zero-day), I started on blood and platelet transfusions to keep my blood counts up. This was necessary to maintain alertness and energy for eating, exercising, and the various treatments and therapies the hospital employed. The white blood count was boosted by various drugs.
But to “graduate” from the hospital, you must have numbers that seem stable and somewhat in sync with one another… growth in one number often leads to growth in others.
That happened for me on January 5th, 2022, in the midst of a Covid red alert here in New Jersey. I went to my sister’s house to recuperate under her watchful eye, as previously recounted here.
Since that time I’ve lived with my sister or at my house, depending on who my caregiver was. (Thanks to Barbara, Dennis, Barb, and Clyde).
A few weeks ago, my hemoglobin and platelet counts jumped up and stayed up. After a regimen of blood twice a week, then once a week, it had been nonce a week for the past few weeks.
My medical team took this as a sign, and cut my visits to once a week. I’ll have been without transfusions for three weeks and I’m thrilled.
I’m also now living on my own and back home again. After a buffer week at my sisters, where I was tested on my pill prep skills and other forms of maintenance, I was driven home to start this new adventure… home living, by myself, with occasional visits from my sister for transport or to keep my pic-line (for blood transfusions) clean. If I make it past my next checkup without needing blood, that damn thing will go!
So I’ve hit a phase of change, independent living, and self-reliance that I haven’t experienced since October 23rd, 2021.
And I’m thrilled. I can start cleaning up my streaming queue!
Thank you all for your good wishes and support.
