My Bone Marrow Transplant: Day -2

LOCATION: Vanderbilt University Hospital - Stem Cell Unit
DATE: 8.12.12 DAY: -2
MOOD: Slightly despondent and feeling the toil of the chemicals in my bod.
MENTAL STATE: Foggy - my brain processor is slow
PHYSICAL STATE: Hungover from the medicines the night before.

The early, early morning round of side effects from the Cytoxan are killer.  Same full head of congestion, scratchy throat and itchy ears but the feeling of wanting to crawl out of my skin kept me awake for most of the night.  The burning and itching of the ears is comparable to the worse round of strep throat imaginable.  My nurse ordered up a round of what is called Miracle Mouthwash and it is composed of Maalox, Lidocaine, and Benadryl and it completely numbed and soothed my mouth and throat.  Sleeping was out of the question so I spent most of the night, eyes closed, rocking back and forth, sitting on the side of my bed humming to myself.  The rhythm of my movement seemed to help calm me down.  It was early morning before I was able to sleep.

That morning I felt exhausted and ached but blamed it on the rough night before and my lack of sleep.  I forced myself to get a few laps in before the Thymo was to start.  Eighteen laps was all I managed.  Turns out there was a reason I was feeling so poorly because by midday, during the last round of Thymo, there was a small spike in my temperature. It only reached 100 degrees, thankfully, or I would have had to undergo a complete work up of tests and protocols.  Antibiotics were started immediately via IV, and seemed to knock out any infection pretty quick.

Today was pretty fuzzy for me, the amount of chemicals my body has been exposed to are adding up and any earlier energy I feltf has long since dissipated.  I spend the rest of the afternoon in what I can only call a sleep coma.

Tonight is the last night of Cytoxan and I am thankful for that.  The nurse who had been with me the last two nights was scheduled to be with me again and I felt comforted in knowing she would be on hand to medicate as needed.