Day 12 A Delight

This morning I met with Dr. Ostranoff  about my current status. After reviewing my latest blood counts she concluded that we should target tomorrow as my release day... TOMORROW!!! Needless to say I'm very excited about going home!

Both my white blood cell and neutrophil counts have rebounded back into the normal range. My red blood cells have stopped going down and are slowing going up. The only other number that isn't really playing nice is my platelet count which still dipped below 50 today which meant I needed another platelet transfusion. I'm hoping that tomorrow's blood count will show some upward movement with my platelet count so that I don't have to continue getting platelet transfusions after I leave the hospital.

My parents came and visited me for most of the day today, which left Carey at home with the chance to spend some quality time with our boys. We've let them know that tomorrow I should be coming home so I hope the doctors don't let them down! They are excited about it and it will be super fun to see them again!

I had a nice visit with my parents today and since my blood counts were high enough and the weather was nice enough we went outside for a bit to enjoy some sunshine. I went around the hospital once with my dad and discovered that my reduced red blood cell count was making it tougher than normal to make it up hills. I'm sure this will change as my new marrow makes more red blood cells.

I've also updated one of my charts to show the progress of white and red blood cells, plus neutrophils. I even tried to add some dashed lines to indicate the 'low' level for each blood count.

You should be able to clearly see the white and neutrophil counts exceeding their respective low level values. It's kind of interesting to see this trough or 'pit' during the transplant process where you just don't have any immune system at all - at least now I've something to work with! It will take a while to fully recover before I don't have to be consciously aware of possible sources of sickness. Until then I will be wearing a mask and using hand sanitizer like it's my job.

I'm so grateful for the many prayers and thoughts extended towards my recovery from this process. I have felt so blessed to have had such an 'easy' transplant. Things really have gone very well and my response has been tremendous to the treatment I've received. I know that God as shown his hand in this process and I want to thank everyone who is contributing their faith to making me whole!