My mom came in this morning and kept me company for most of the day. We sat around and watched TV and talked for awhile about all sorts of things. Yesterday I had a conversation with one of my doctors about my white blood cell count and the rate at which it has been rising. It has been rising rather slowly so I proposed the idea of possibly using the drug Neupogen to kick start the growth of white blood cells, and more importantly neutrophils. In order for me to go home, I need at least 1000 white blood cells with about 50% of them being neutrophils. My white blood cell count today was about 700 with only about 100 neutrophils. After I proposed the idea of using Neupogen, my doctors agreed and scheduled me to get some of the drug injected at noon today. They inject the drug into my stomach region. It’s a tiny needle, but because the drug is somewhat thicker than normal, it really burns going in.
Later on in the afternoon, my dad and sister came to visit. Almost right after they showed up, one of the nurses came into my room with a couple of pieces of paper in her hand. The pieces of paper were basically instructions on how to take care of myself while I am at home. Wait a minute! Home…WHAT!?!?! Yep…sure enough! She was giving me instructions on how to take care of the line in my arm and ways to stay healthy. Five minutes later another woman came into my room to setup to have someone come to my house and help me if I needed it.
Well, if you haven’t figured out where any of this is going yet, then I will just cut to the chase! There is a good chance that I may be going home to Two Rivers tomorrow! The doctors said that they would do everything they could to get me home at least before the Packer game. So even if I don’t get to go home tomorrow, things are looking very promising for Sunday even! Granted, I will only be able to go home for a few days…maybe even a week. I will be back in the hospital to continue my treatment as soon as we know what the next steps in my treatment are going to be. I will have to come back to the hospital for another bone marrow biopsy sometime maybe next week as well.
So, as I am sure you can assume, I am in a great mood and could not be more happy at the moment. Take care everyone and have a great weekend…I know I will!
GO PACKERS!!!!
Eric