Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, 6 days it was, I suppose.

A lot has happened in the past few days, so please forgive me for not writing. Haven't really felt up to it.

Wednesday I got a bone marrow biopsy.

Thursday I get a call from Onk. "You need to come in right away and we need to start another round of chemo. I don't want to wait until Monday." Thursday night I checked into a hotel room in the hospital. It was a small room and I can't say I was very fond of this room.

Friday I got a PICC line. It's similar to a blood spigot although this one is in my upper left arm instead of in my chest. My arm feels bruised and tender around the area of the PICC. Friday night I got my first round of chemo. This chemo is what they call MEC. Each letter stands for a different chemical that they use, but I don't know which one is which.

I get the first chemical around 8pm which lasts an hour. My second chemical comes immediately after at 9pm, lasting 6 hours until 3am. Then I get a 3 hour break and at 6am I get a bag of this very toxic looking cerulean blue chemical that only lasts for 10 or 20 minutes. The last one makes my urine turn green, which is a little weird.

Overall, the week has been pretty rough with some bright sides. My friend, Gator (the one who gave me the massive stuffed leukocyte) came up and spent the weekend. Kym and my mom have both been around a lot too.

I got moved to my old, much bigger room one of the days, but everything kid of blends together so it's hard to remember which day.

Nausea has been a problem the past few days, but we're working through it. I'm hoping now that the chemo is done, the nausea should simmer down a little bit. Last night was my last night of chemo this tim around.

Anyway, it's Thanksgiving so I should be thankful for something. I'm thankful that this is only one year. And I will have my good thanksgivings in my future.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, from Bulwyf Broclergaard.

Status Quo

Hi everybody!

Just wanted to let you know nothing has really been going on. I'm feeling pretty ok apart from these fevers from the fungal infection in my blood. I'm on an anti-fungal that I picked up from the pharmacy today, so we're good there.

Things are good. Keep rockin'.

Day One of Freedom

Good day today at Kym's apartment. Though her and Bill were both working today, my mom and Jackie are both here to keep me company. We watched football and then I went for a walk. I'm still anemic, mind you, so I have to lie down every now and again just because I get a bit tired.

Walking was nice though because I didn't have to wear a mask. I could breathe normally and smell all the Fall Boston smells.

"Home. I'm Going Home."

Say that with a Russian accent and guess the movie.

But I just talked to Onk. The most recent bone marrow biopsy is.......

Inconclusive.

Sigh.

But Onk says it looks good, she went just short of saying I'm in remission. There are a few immature monocytes chillin' out in my marrow, but it's hard to tell if they're cancerous or not. Normally they stain for CD34, but apparently my cells are negative for CD34. That's mildly disturbing because CD34 is kind of a big deal in the body. I'm hoping she was just talking about these specific cells.

So the plan:

I'm heading to Kym's place tonight and will stay there until my outpatient appointments next week. I have a dental appointment at 10am on Monday and another bone marrow biopsy on Wednesday. Hopefully that will be conclusive enough to determine if I can go to Thanksgiving dinner and then get my transplant or get another round of chemo and spend another month in recovery. I'd really just like to know.

Curses.

Holding Pattern

Waiting on the results of the bone marrow biopsy. If it's clean, I could be discharged today. If it's not, I get 5 more days of chemo. The waiting game is a bit frustrating. I'll let you know when I know more, but as of right now I'm just waiting.

Day Pass (again!)

Still waiting on the bone marrow biopsy result to see if I can actually be discharged. Until then, I just get to leave during the day.

Back later.

A Note to Pill Makers

How hard is it to make an easily swallowable pill? During my stay here I have had very large pills and very small pills. Guess what. Those large pills weren't hard to swallow. They were shaped well and very easy to take.

Then there are those few who try to look cool for no good reason at all. Why do you need to shape your pill like a freaken almond? Just make it a circle. Or an oval. I feel like we've had pills for long enough, it should be pretty clear what pill shapes are easier to swallow than others. And it has nothing to do with size. I have to take massive potassium pills that go down like nothing. But I have to take these damned almond shaped antifungals for the next 4 months at least that, if I'm lucky, get caught in my throat on my first try. Usually it stops on my tongue and I have to drink more and try again, all the while the disgusting taste moves throughout my mouth.

Seriously. Whatever company decided it was a good idea to make a pill with pointy edges should be shut down by the FDA for being dumbasses.

My Day Out

I've gotten a lot of questions about my day out, so I'll give you all a little bit of an update. I'm hoping to leave again today, and if the bone marrow biopsy comes back negative, I could be discharged completely from the hospital and remain an outpatient for the next few weeks. I still have the transplant ahead, but I'd like to just get out of here at this point.

Yesterday was good though. It involved a lot of walking with Kym. I had to wear a mask and gloves, because although my white counts are up in the normal range, I'm what's called "functionally neutropenic." This means the numbers are all good, but I just had chemo and as much as I hate to admit it, I'm still more susceptible to infection than most people. But we left the hospital and walked around the Harvard Medical Quad (at least that's what I'm calling it). Kym's friend picked us up and took us back to her apartment. We then walked to a sandwich shop, and then the local library. I'll be here for a year so it will be good to know where the library is. I'll feel like I'm back in college again. Just take away the drinking and add medical safeguards and it's pretty much the same. No football games for me though.

After the library, we walked back to her apartment and Bill came home. Bill made a tasty fish dinner. It was tasty and good. We watched a bit of TV and then I headed back to the hospital. All in all I walked about 2.5 miles yesterday. This may not sound like a lot, but I'm still anemic and being in a hospital for the past month has severely de-conditioned me. I was pretty beat by the end of the day.

It was a good day. Very nice to breathe the outside air, even if it was through a mask.

DAY PASS

The hospital is giving me a day pass. I'm allowed to leave for the day and be a normal person, I just need to be back here for sleep time. It's sweet because I get to go outside and walk around. This is because my counts are all doing well and I can fight disease with my own immune system for the time being.

Be back later.

Things Continue to Go Well

Fevers are down, drinking a delicious smoothie that Kym got for me. Other than that, not much to report. We're still waiting for the biopsy results, and until then I'm just in limbo, sitting here watching ESPN.