Day +5 (Tuesday)

You may notice I've started to put the day of the week with the title.   This is mostly because I have no idea what day it is.  We live in a weird little time portal.  

Day 500 is what Andy said today.  And I agree.  Each day is 100 days.  Maybe 1000.  

But who can complain?  Andy is freaking ROCKING this Stem Cell Transplant.  

Appointment today was at 10.  We had the same nurse as yesterday - whom we love - but we kind of love them all.  Yesterday platelets were at 32 and Emma felt pretty confident we were going to need an infusion (ugh, I'm sorry, infusion, transfusion, I don't know what it's all called!) of platelets.  Usually once blood is drawn Andy keeps his phone in hand and refreshes MyChart, waiting for the lab results to come back.  We were hoping for another fast day! 

Emma came back rather quickly, that was fast - we didn't have labs back yet!

"They usually call me first when there are critical numbers..." she said.  We knew exactly what that meant.  Andy's platelets had dropped to 19.  20 is the threshold.  We were getting platelets.  Sigh.   But not surprising.  

His ANC is 0 and WBC at .1 (and...WHY can't I put him in a plastic bubble??)

Our doctor today was Aryel - the same from this weekend (another one we really like!)  She asked Andy ALL the questions.  He explained he was feeling well, was tired, but worked a full day and went to bed early, we wasn't starving, but was eating, and was drinking ok.  No fever, no cold symptoms.  No rash.  No night sweats.  No chills.  Not dizzy.  Not nauseous.  He had not fallen since the last time we had been at the hospital.  No unknown bruising.  No unexplained pain.  

She looked at us for a minute.  You're doing remarkable.   

So now we are bottomed out.  Could more fatigue come?  Sure.  It could.  Could the nausea increase once we stop the Zofran tomorrow?  Sure.  It could.  Could something change?  Andy is neutropenic - ANYTHING could change.  (Neutropenic is my fancy way of saying he has a low level of neutrophils, which is a fancy way of saying white blood cells.) (You know...with the amount of time I've spent at the hospital recently, I am basically a doctor!  Between this and google...watch out!)  Our Hg is holding strong at 13.9 and has slightly been increasing since hitting 12.8 on Day +1.  There is a good chance we will not need any blood transfusions during our process.  At this point. most of our numbers are where they are - most of them can't get any lower.  However, we are likely to need several more platelet transfusions.  

After being told we were boring, and receiving our platelets, we went home.  Platelets are dainty little cells, but they transfuse (infuse?) quickly!  We all agreed we like being boring and we are hopeful for many more boring days.  

Andy and I both got to work fully days again today!  

The kids spent the day with Grandma and Grandpa today.  As soon as they walked in the door, Oliver indicated he was going upstairs to shower and change.  Eleanor and I went for a walk with Debbie and then she came home and showered and changed.  Neither of them would go near Andy until they had.  Could there be other germs they picked up and are internal now?  Sure.  Of course.  But dang if they aren't doing what they can to keep their dad safe.  We are just crazy proud of them!

Another quiet night.  Oliver is working on the Lego set I got Andy.  Andy's working on swim club enrollments (if you don't know, Andy is our swim club treasurer).  Eleanor is doing homework (you know, because everyone does homework on Spring Break).  And I'll work on my cross-stitch soon.  

Shhhhh.  Sit in this moment for just a moment.  Close your eyes and sit in this moment.  Do you feel that?  It feels....sort of normal.  I refuse to let myself exhale yet.  We are ONLY Day +5 and need to get through at least Day +14 until we can even start to say things like successful recovery.  But the panic of chemo.  The panic of cell transfusion.  It's over.  Clearly his chemo is working because his numbers tanked.  Now we just need to see those numbers start to recover around Day 9 and we'll be able to check the next box.  

This is all because of Andy.  But think of the role you are playing.  Your prayers.  Your positive energy.  Your encouragement.  It keeps us going.   It keeps us positive.  And because of that - It WILL make this successful.  And I refuse to believe anything else!

PS - for the record - blood and platelets are received via TRANSfusion. Fluids would be received via INfusion...I'm not going back to change anything - but now we all know for next time!  😉)