Thirty-seven Days Post

It seems to be a vanishing act with me, but really, I haven't gone anywhere. Motivation to sit here and type about my slow moving life just has been a little more difficult than it was before. It's just that my days are very limited with excitement, it doesn't seem necessary to explain. It has been twenty days since the hospital stay, and about day thirty-seven post transplant. No serious complications have come up, but I have experienced some irregular bowel symptoms which have not been the most pleasant, I think they are subsiding. But a new schedule has come about during the night, the frequency or those bathroom trips get me up three to four times a night. It would help if I didn't have to drink so much fluid with my pills, but it helps to get the excess out of my system, making it easier on my liver. The last few blood tests have shown higher levels of certain substances in my liver(naturally there, but a little higher than is necessary) so the fluid intake is important. The first hundred days after transplant are most crucial in that acute GVHD can occur, the skin, GI tract, liver, kidneys, and eyes can become damaged, or affected. Of course the drugs I am on are meant to counteract these effects. So far nothing has surfaced. Unfortunately, I do not feel completely normal(whatever that is), it is possibly the drugs, but anything is possible, you just got to hope for the best. So my situation is favorable for me right now, of course things can change very suddenly, but I will say they won't!

Strumming my guitar has a soothing quality, I'm getting a little better, but if you were to see/hear, maybe not so much. I have lessons every Friday night, so it's something to keep me somewhat occupied. But with the coming of nice weather it will be really hard to be not outside, running around, rolling around on the lawn. My skin is more sensitive to the sun now, so 30 SPF will be my closest friend, chemo and the drugs is what does it to you... Everyone should be using 30 SPF now anyway, skin Cancer is on the rise! But staying away from all those dreaded microbes and bacteria that live in the ground, tough, but I guess it will have to be do-able. I will have to fine a plastic tree, or an umbrella will work, sit on an antibacterial surface, under my fluorescent light and strum my guitar, maybe I'll be good by the time the microbes are frozen again this winter.

I go back to the doctor tomorrow, he'll check me over, and hopefully my blood test will be good, and nothing will come up. Again, I'll be back on Wednesday if they don't need me again Tuesday. I don't enjoy going to see the doctor, but at least I know that they are there for me to help me out if I get into trouble. That will be hard for when the time comes to go home, the security of the specialists being ten minutes away is not really an option. But when the time comes we will know what can be done, and by then I will be so much better, it likely will not even be anything of a concern, still it stays, take it one day, one step at a time!

Justin:)