Update July 17th

Well everyone we are beginning the countdown to my long stay in the hospital. One week from today (July 23) I will be admitted for the stem cell transplant. I am getting more and more nervous as the time approaches.

I am trying to figure out what I need to take into the hospital with me. There is going to be a lot of empty time to fill. I have some movies to bring along, a couple of books to read (possibly), word searches and some magazines. Plus there is a tv in the room. I am hoping I won’t be too sick and will need lots to keep me occupied.

We have been pretty pleased with my blood counts over the past 4 weeks. Week one: 111, week 2 & 3: 107 and week 4: 109. Now that they have sort of stabilized, I will be getting another massive dose of chemo that will mess me up again. It will be interesting to see how much blood I may get during this stay.

It is 4 months today since I first went into the hospital. It is also 4 months today since I had a cigarette. There are still the odd times that I would like one, but I have resisted the urge.

I had some good news on the weekend, my youngest (Joanne and her husband Eric) are coming on Wednesday for a while. Joanne says she doesn’t know how long they will be staying. I have the feeling she wants to stay until she knows I am well on my way to recovery. It will be wonderful to have them here for support.

I am treating myself to a manicure and pedicure tomorrow before I go into the hospital. Thought that would be a nice thing to do for myself. I would do something with my hair but there isn’t that much there to worry about. I don’t think that it has grown much since I last got it cut.

I don’t know when I will be able to update you again. Visitors are welcome anytime. For the first while, please check with Bruce or one of the girls to see if I am up to visitors as I don’t know how I will react to the chemo. The other thing is that on the ward I will be on there are no cut or live flowers allowed.

That’s all for now. I will keep you updated as soon as it is possible.

My Update July 9, 2008

Thought I should do a bit of an update this evening as I have finally have something to say. I was at the hospital today for my weekly bloodwork. The last 3 weeks my blood counts have been pretty good. The haemoglobin has been staying steady at between 111 and 107. Not great for an ordinary person, but wonderful for me. Today I finally remembered to ask about my platelets and they were 173 in the 'normal' range. My doctor had been away and is back now and the discussion with the transplant nurses is that I may be going into the hospital on July 24th. Two weeks from now. I have to go in the 3 days prior to being admitted for an injection of some drug that helps with the mouth sores that the big chemo gives. They are being cautious because of my mouth troubles that I have had and am still having to a certain extent.

I am quite apprehensive about this stem cell transplant as it gets closer to the time. The killing off of my immune system, such as it is, scares the hell out of me. I'm also not looking forward to my long stay in the hospital. That's enough of that talk.

Today Jill, Sadie and I went out shopping for a B-Day gift. It was good. Sadie sat on my lap in the wheelchair and went for rides with Grandma. She loves looking around and smiled at anyone who paid attention to her. She is such a doll. We also had lunch at Gateway before we went shopping. There was so much for the little monkey to see and there were new people to meet. She really is a social little girl. We stopped to pick up a Tim's before coming home. While we were drinking our coffees Sadie was watching and watching. When I was done my coffee I gave her the cup and she was quite happy. I think I should submit this pic to Timmies and Sadie could be the newest Tim's Poster Girl!!!!!

Don't you think she could sell a tonne of coffees???

Not much else going on here. Bruce is pretty busy at work these days. They will be resurfacing the lanes soon and around the first of August they are supposed to start installing the new scoring system. And all this will be going on while I'm in the hospital. GREAT!!!!!!

That's all for now:)