Day -3

I woke up about 7:30AM for good this morning. The sleep was pretty good. The nurse was slightly disorganized and didn't finish my chemo until 11:45PM last night. We thought I would need blood but my red blood cells stayed the same. My calcium was low so I got an IV bag of it around 5AM then vitals and something else at 6AM. You just have to try and go back to sleep in spite of the interruptions. I walked for 25 minutes this morning and saw Dr Riftkin again and his assistant. They think I am doing fine and to keep pressing on.

Blood counts. Platelets=24 White blood cells=2.5 Red blood cells=24.4.

I started chemo again this morning at 8:00AM. It is exactly the same as the last three days. This is my last day for this and the chemo drug changes tomorrow. They also said I would get a dose of: Anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG) is an infusion of rabbit-derived antibodies against human T cells which is used in the prevention and treatment of acute rejection in organ transplantation. I will get some premeds like solumedrol, benadryl & tylenol to reduce the chance of allergic reaction to this ATG. The ATG will be helpful on Wednesday when I get the new bone marrow stem cells. Nanette is coming to visit this morning, then Sue, Monica & Deanne later in the day. I will take another shower when Nanette gets here and she can make sure that I clean my line like I was taught yesterday.

Disregard the ATG starting tonight. The nurses called Dr. Matous and he said to start it after the chemo is done. He did not want it interacting with the chemo. So I will get the final chemo tonight like I have been for the last 3 days. I will then get a different chemo tomorrow and then the ATG tomorrow afternoon or evening. I have to be flexible for these changes. So far no insulin shots today. I had a milkshake and lots of carbs for dinner so will most likely require one tonight. They are strict about my blood sugar because they feel high blood sugar increases the likelyhood of infction because it gives the infection sweets to grow faster. The chemo should start at 8PM but I have the same nurse as last night so it will be slow again.

I finished my walking for the day when Monica and Deanne left. They stayed around 3 hours and brought some paper airplanes and drawings from Mikey and Brendan. One funny thing happened the first day. Nanette was busy wiping down the whole room to make sure everything was spotless. I brought some tennis shoes from my closet that were new and not from when Brooke & Deanne were running track. I guess a mouse visited my closet and there were mouse poops in the shoes. Nanette was disgusted after cleaning so hard. She wiped the shoes down so everything should be fine. That's it for today. Hopefully I can get some decent sleep tonight but I am not counting on it. Thanks for your support and prayers.