Saturday, November 17, 2007

Bantering or Babbling?

I always felt a little sad when I was a little girl and saw the "No shoes, no shirt, no service" sign on diners in West Virginia. The way I figured it, if a poor bum couldn't afford shoes or a shirt, he should at least be able to get a meal.

Why do I bring this up? I'm thinking of getting a T-shirt that reads, "No shoes, no sushi, so surfing," to sum up my life for the next few months. (Well, technically, it should read "no shoelessness," but that would ruin the poetry.)

I'm developing a better understanding of this auto stem cell transplant (ASCT) process. (And, yes, even though I've received the reinfusion of my stem cells, the "process" is just beginning.) As you may recall from a former post, the ASCT is performed as a "rescue procedure" to recover from the massive doses of chemo. I thought it was a linear procedure: slam down blood with chemo, build up blood with reinfused stem cells.

In reality, the chemo is continuing to slam down the blood, even as I type this. And the stem cells are getting ready to learn to produce their own blood components at the same time. In the meantime, I have daily blood draws and receive transfusions when my counts fall below doctor-specified limits. I received my first red blood transfusion this morning.

For the next couple weeks, these daily blood count reports will provide my daily drama, so I'm going to start posting them on the blog as well. (Numbers in parentheses are normal ranges.)

WBC .4 (4.0-11)
RBC 2.3 (3.8-5.2)
HGB 8.7 (11.5-15.5)
PLT 24 (150-350)

Yesterday I experienced a few hours of the proverbial, mowed-over-by-a-fleet-of-Mac-trucks exhaustion, but today I've felt wonderfully "normal" all day.

Now I'm feeling run-of-the-mill, haven't-slept-more-than-three-hours-a-night-for-a-week tired. And guess what? That's a glorious feeling. I'm looking forward to lots of peaceful ZZZs tonight.

10 comments:

Mrs. Duck said...

Sleep tight! I hope you're warm now Smookie, and that you have wonderful dreams of being in Hawaii, without hose or shoes, splashing in germ-free water and breathing sparkling clean air and eating lots of magical sushi made up of delicious garlic flavored stem cells!

Anonymous said...

That flip and nest become you...this is an adorable photo..Nina wil get a real kick out of this one.
Can I bring any fuzzy blankets to COH?
Restoration Hardware has the best blanket this seaon it's fake fure with a teddy to go with..
see you tomorrow if you are up to it.
Mary

Nancy said...

I just re-discovered your blog. My Chemo-brain (or is it "old-age") made me forget. Hang in there. Sounds like you have a strong support system, plus a sense of humor, but if you need anything, please let me know. I'll be at COH this Tuesday 11/20. I still visit COH every month (18 months post-transplant) nancy

Anonymous said...

Hi Susan--
I've been thinking about you lately. This morning I remembered you had a blog and googled it up.
It is good to hear you through your words!

Take care,
Cecile

Susan C said...

I had a great visit with Mary and Nina today, and my door is wide open to receiving visitors.

If you have time, pop in on Tuesday, Nancy.

Great to hear from Cecile.

Lilli said...

Alas, I am leaving town just as you are taking visitors. But I will be rooting for those numbers to go up.

Once again, I honor your love of measurement. Thanks for showing all of us your spreadsheet this time!

Margaret said...

Hope you got a good night sleep. Glad you're ready for visitors. I'm going to try and come by next week.

Desiree said...

Hang in there, Susan!

Anonymous said...

I'm sending an email to Dan my yoga teacher today
let you know when he is avalible and when you would like a vistor

Anonymous said...
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