My Bone Marrow Transplant: Day 5

LOCATION: Vanderbilt University Hospital - Stem Cell Unit
DATE: 8.19.12    DAY: 5
MOOD:  Everyone lives today!
MENTAL STATE:  Yesterday's great day helped today start off with a good mental state.
PHYSICAL STATE:  Nausea free and feeling well, but I can really feel the weakened state of my body. Chemo kicks hiney.

The morning started out great and I ended up napping three times before 10:00a.  Sunday was definitely the day of rest.

Around 10:30, right after my mother came for her morning visit, an orderly showed up at my door to wheel me down for x-rays.  I was not aware until today that, each Sunday, all transplant patients are to have a chest x-ray just to keep an eye on our lungs.  The ride down was quick and the chest x-ray was status quo:  stand in front of a small white board, roll your shoulders forward, take in a big breath for the camera, then turn sideways, grab a hold of a pole above your head, and take in another breath.  The orderly who wheeled me back to my room must have a race car driver's blood because she whipped me around like Mario Andretti.  Had I still been suffering from nausea, she would have had to stop and let me heave.

I felt well enough to walk with my mother for twenty minutes that morning.  Counting laps has been more of a chore than a help; it's easier to keep track of how long I walk than how far I walk.

Felt great the entire evening and ventured out to eat a serving of peaches.  They were delicious!  They stayed in my stomach and I never felt nauseated.  I think my gut may have rested enough to stay settled and I've already planned to eat mashed potatoes tomorrow.

I attempted to run a comb through my hair and had to stop.  My hair HURT.  If hair can hurt, that is.  The follicles ached liked crazy and I decided a tangled mess of hair was more manageable than the pain of coming it out.  I slapped my hair in a bun and stayed away from mirrors.  "Do what you have to do to make it through."

I walked for another twenty minutes that evening and ended the evening having to take two oxycodone pills for the headache that flared up from my nightly dose of cyclosporine.