Day +18 – Marking time

Friday August 3, 2012
Quail Run RV Resort Lot #15

 

Not much to report today.  I go out running as usual.  It is hot as usual.  I slog through it as usual.  I come back and do my stretches outside, lift weights inside, shower, and have breakfast as usual.  

David’s fatigue seems to be increasing.  He is still having significant trouble sleeping with only an hour or less at one time.  Sleeping medications are not helping.  But the good news is, he doesn’t have significant back issues, the abdominal pain is less severe and he hasn’t had any nausea in 4 days now.

He is still in bed when I get back and is really lacking energy.  He eventually gets up and gets dressed and has breakfast but with no enthusiasm.  He just has no oomph at all.   He goes out for a shorter than Lettuce Lake Park walk around Quail Run.  He is tired when he returns and his feet are some what swollen.  We prop his feet up on pillows, and he lies down to listen to a book on tape.  He falls asleep for an hour less than 3 hours after he’s gotten up.

 

He wakes up to eat lunch, spends a little time on his laptop and then it is time to drive into Tampa for his 2:00 appointment at Moffitt.  They take his blood and we wait 45 minutes for the results so we will know them without having to wait for a doctor to sign off which is required before they can be posted to a patient’s MyMoffitt on line portal.

It is very nice to have all of your medical records available to you on line.  But today is Friday and it is possible that these results won’t get signed into the system until Monday.  So we wait. 

 

 

While we wait, David sleeps.  He wakes up just as I am taking this picture with my phone since I have not brought the camera. 

Seeing people lying on the sofas in the BMT waiting room covered in blankets is not a terribly unusual thing.  No one bats an eye.

We get the numbers which show some positive change.  I am mostly concerned about the white cells which had made a great come back but are dropping again rather rapidly.

 

 

 

 

 

Here are the last few days of numbers.  Red indicates low.  Black indicates normal and the blue is the current concern as it edges in the wrong direction.

 

We drive back and again he watches the Olympics with his computer on his lap and dozes.  We have dinner, he takes his temperature for the 2nd time today, and we go for another short walk in the sprinkling rain.

When we return, I suggest he send an email to his Myeloma Doctor about the WBC count since he didn’t see a doctor at this blood draw and isn’t scheduled to see one until Tuesday.  He thinks it is a good idea and composes and sends the email. 

He is doing more sleeping now than at almost any point since his transplant other than on his worst day in the hospital.  He says he just has no energy, is totally fatigued.   I would not be worried about this at all if his WBC weren’t moving down rather than up.   But most probably his body is just making him slow down and mark time while it gets reorganized.

Although during the walk he complains about not feeling well and is very sluggish, after this second walk he seems to have a little more energy.  At least he’s not nodding off in his chair yet.  Maybe he’s actually just discovered he’s a night owl.  Anyway, I fix him a dish of ice cream.  Good for whatever is the matter RIGHT??   As far as I know only neupogen shots will for sure raise one’s white blood cell counts.  It’s been exactly a week since he had his last one of 5 post transplant shots.  Maybe, I’d better ask the great and wise Google whether ice cream raises White Blood Counts.  Ice cream to the belly is a lot more fun than a needle shot to the belly.