Hey everyone,

 

My white blood cell count is bottoming out. This now means that I am neutropenic and my diet is now somewhat restricted. I can’t eat fresh fruits or vegetables; unless the fruit has a hard shell (like a watermelon). The shell protects the inner fruit from various bacterias and pesticides that they can have. Speaking of my diet, I am also having a very difficult time eating anything. The chemotherapy and radiation did a number on my entire digestive system. It also ate away at the mucous lining of my mouth. So I have all of these very painful sores on the inside of my cheeks and down my throat. Even if I am able to get some food into my stomach, it usually ends up coming back out. Ice cream and chicken noodle soup have been the foundation of my diet.

 

Because of these mouth/throat sores that I am getting, I was given a pain medication pump that I can use every 15 minutes. It seems to be helping a little bit, but I think the amount that goes in needs to be increased yet. That’s one thing that is common throughout all of my treatments; the mouth sores. My mouth tissue is just sloughing off. I also get the hiccups a lot which is bad because my diaphragm contracts like crazy when I do. Puking is another thing which the medications aren’t controlling very well.

 

As each day passes I get closer to being released from the hospital. I just keep telling myself, “One more day.”

 

My mom picked up some Chinese food for me to eat tonight. I went with the lo mein; something tells me anything with some more substance would not have stayed down too well. Dawn also dropped by after she got off work to see how I was doing.

 

At 7:00 or so, three of my college buddies came to visit. They told me they were going to bring their Nintendo Wii. Sounded like fun…except they forgot to bring one of the cables for it; so that shot the entire thing down. We still had a great time. We exchanged stories of our spring breaks. The three of them went to St. Louis and Iowa City.

 

It was very nice seeing their faces and I look forward to their next visit.

 

As for me, I am going to try getting some more sleep tonight. They have me on two new medications to help me sleep. So far neither of them seem to be doing anything. I am getting roughly four hours of good sleep per night. That right there is enough to drill me to the ground with fatigue. So I think I am going to call it early tonight and get some rest.

 

Good night everyone and thank you so much for all of your support.

 

Love,

Eric