Day 11 Engraftment Syndrome for $500

Last night I didn't sleep as well as I wanted, although most people could probably say the same thing. Since my latest thing these days is 'fevering' that's about the only thing interesting to talk about. The doctors have been treating my 'fevering' as some sort of infection so they're feeding me antibiotics, Tylenol, and some creams for my rashes. None of the tests they've done to identify the source of the fever has turned up anything and given the rash which has extended to most of my body, they have decided to treat it like 'engraftment syndrome' which according to bmtcare.com is "an early complication of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) that occurs around neutrophil engraftment time and is attributed to the sudden cytokine discharge associated with robust engraftment of transplanted cells." So to deal with this they've continued to give me antibiotics but now they're adding Prednisone which is a steroid. I feel like some of my rash has started to go away and I haven't been as feverish today so that's good. I should be happy to have such a robust engraftment on my hands!

I spent much of today fairly alert and fortunately I was able to spend that time with my beautiful wife. She's been such a trooper taking care of the boys on the home front and making the trip here to Salt Lake City to visit me. Things will get even more stressful for her as she attempts to carve out a sterile cavern in our home for me as our two boys do their best to mess up and snotify her attempts. Fortunately my parents are there to help out - I wish them luck! I probably won't be leaving the hospital until next week some time but time is running out!

When that day comes I will certainly be happy to be home and hope that everyone makes it through the preparation process in one piece!