Day 23

Looking at the calendar, I find that this is Day 23, after my transplant.  So 24 days ago I had my baby stem cells transplanted back into my blood stream, to begin reestablishing my bone marrow and my immune system.  I am pleased to report that everything seems to be coming along nicely, and while I still have a long way to go, my progress seems to be slow and steady.

We have been back home for a little over a week now, and while I grew to love and cherish all of the staff at Duke's Adult Bone Marrow Transplant, I much prefer being back in my more comfortable and familiar surroundings.  Like the young lady from Kansas said, "There's no place like home".

Earlier this week, I visited my local Oncologist's office for some blood work and an assessment exam.  The blood work was the first I had received since leaving Duke.  I must admit that it was very reassuring to get lab results daily while at Duke, so that we could see the progress on various measures. When Duke said we were discharged and free to return home, it was exceedingly welcome news, but it was also a bit scary not being able to get those daily report cards.  So this latest set of test results was viewed with much anticipation.  The details indicated that I am gaining ground on ALL fronts, some quite significantly and others less impressive but still well within acceptable levels.  Praise the Lord!  I am scheduled for weekly testing for the foreseeable future.

So much for the more measurable and quantifiable metrics.  The main thing I tend to pay the most attention to is how I feel, and I am pleased to report that we are also making good progress on that front.  I have developed my own sort of Richter Scale to measure my status: I Feel Bad, I Feel OK, I Feel Good, I Feel Great.  At the present time the needle is pointing to I Feel OK.  Having spent more time that I really wanted on the I Feel Bad level right after my transplant, I am very satisfied to just be feeling OK.  OK beats Bad every day.  Each day I seem to make a little more progress, although some days are about the same or even a little backwards, but the overall trend line is definitely headed in the right direction.  Our daughter describes it as taking baby steps.  But when I look back to where I was a week ago, I can see definite improvement.  I am getting out for a mile or so walk each day since it is well established that exercise is a definite aid to recovery.  My appetite is very good, so I am able to maintain a continual intake of good, nourishing foods (with a little junk food mixed in here and there too).

My biggest problem continues to be fatigue, and I know that this aspect will be one of the later facets to respond and improve.  So my patience quotient needs to remain high, as I await with much anticipation moving the needle up to the I Feel Good level.
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