Improvement...Good News

Well the past few days haven't been the greatest days being in the hospital, but they for sure have not been the worst. I am feeling a thousand, maybe not a million, times better that I could have said two weeks ago. The past few days have seen great improvement in my state of being, of course I never lost spirit, but I did lack movement. It was hard, at first, to stand up. I think it was an understatement to say I had only gained twenty pounds, a safer bet was in the twenty-five to thirty range. In just the past two-and-a-half days I have lost a whopping five kilograms, this translates to about eleven pounds, quite a sharp drop, and something to worry about if it were not water jiggling around my waist. Speaking of which my waist is shrinking, as well my lower extremities are about normal too, a little stretched, but I think it will be normal again. I still have about six kilograms that I should be losing, and it is showing in my excretions, I am voiding litres at a time. It is amazing that when you are full of fluid how far your bladder can stretch, I just hope along with the stretch marks I don't end up with loss of bladder control as well. I am not turning into a woman, and I refuse to wear Depends!

My walking is getting less wobbly and more controlled, I have been working with the physiotherapist who walks around with me checking my oxygen saturation while I walk. It was more difficult last week, but today I took my oxygen off. I still feel a bit light headed, but in conjunction with my hemoglobin being fairly low, this is something normal, my body just isn't getting as much blood circulation as it would normally. I am at 83 today where normal level is 137- 180, needless to say I am low. My white counts are lower too(2.6, normal 4-11) but everything climbed a few points today.

Things are happening really fast, I was just interrupted by my physiotherapist to go walking, without oxygen I was able to walk about four laps without my saturation going below 90%. Very good news, this may mean I am able to get out of the hospital for a little while, soon!! I seem to improving fairly rapidly.

On my walk I was interrupted by my Bone Marrow Transplant nurse. More exciting, but nerving wrenching news. I have a donor. Full matches, with a few back ups with full matches!!! I am shaking right now, I feel like screaming, crying, or laughing, I don't know what to feel. It will be soon, I think the donor may be from Calgary. I just have to wait for more good news, remission! It's very strange how things piece themselves together!

I had my fourth Bone Marrow Biopsy yesterday, I was given like five needles of anesthetic, she froze me good, way more than I have ever been. It went pretty good, hardly any pain, just the part where they wrench on it to get through the bone, the doctor was a little wimpy and had a little bit of a hard time. Eventually it got through and down into the marrow, but she did this twisting inside me because she said she had to make sure the marrow sample broke off, so she was twisting the needle, vibrating inside my bone....The weirdest feeling, could make you sick if you really thought of what was happening. Meanwhile I had the lab tech and the other doctor taking pictures of the procedure cause I hadn't seen it before. I'll post a few of them, I wish I could have got more close ups!!
Anyway, that's five days since I was here, I will try to be more consistent, but if not don't worry!! Justin:)