Moving On Up

Ok, so woke up this morning with an after-birthday party celebration hangover, yet this one was a little bit different than what you may think.  Yes, I was tired, but considering why I was tired had nothing to do with parties, gifts, cakes and all.  I looked at the clock and it read 11:00 am and I was still feeling exhausted.  My engraftment syndrome has become quite severe since I was given more stem cells than patients normally receive, so the body and bone aches are normal, yet my fever and chills still seen to linger too.

You might begin to know the daily routine here, goal #1?  Take a shower.  That wasn't too bad, so I was in and out of there, productively, yet swiftly, in about ten minutes.  Then I napped or at least I tried to lay down for a bit.  Fatigue has now become a challenge that I face everyday.  Just another one of those things I fight with.  I fight with myself to shower, to get dressed, to GET MOTIVATED, TARA!!!!

Today J came to visit and spend the night me.  He got me walking and laughing and, what do you know?  We got up to 22 laps total!  Thank you, J, you have no idea how much I love walking with you because its like we're not walking for laps, but merely walking, talking and laughing.

So I will let you in on a little secret.  I have been going though such a nightmare of stem cell engraftment pain in my back and legs.  Sometimes it's helpful to get some good news!  The chemo killed my entire immune system, as it should have and did, and my counts came down to 0.1 or less for days.  My platelets were critically low too, but to me, they actually didn't seem that bad, just the bruising was the worst sign of the low counts.   I've lived this life walking around with blood counts this low, so it seems almost normal to me.

Well friends, I am headed to higher counts, ALL BY MYSELF!  Today my WBC were a whopping 4.3 and my platelets are 116!!!!  I have NEVER seen any number remotely close to those so you can only imagine how ecstatic I am!  It makes the bigger picture easier to focus on through the pain and fatigue!

Day +15