Last night I almost had a good night’s rest. I forced myself to stay awake until midnight. The reason for this is because every night at 12:00 they come into my room to check my vitals (blood pressure, heart rate, etc..). So I figured if I just kept myself awake long enough for the nurses to take care of that, then I would sleep like a baby until morning when they come rolling into my room again. They usually take my vitals again at 7:30-8:00am. So here I was prepping myself for some solid sleep. However, this was not the case. At 6:00am there were jackhammers, dump trucks, construction equipment, etc going off. This hospital is constantly getting larger: more rooms, doctors offices, and more parking structures. So of course I woke up from all of that. Thinking about going to sleep around 8:00pm, nurse at 12:00, and then construction at 6. I should be good to go if I can pull that off.

 

My older brother Mike popped in the other day at around 8:00am. I was quite surprised to see him because he has to work. He took off work to come and hang out with me. We had a good time, playing a video game here and there. We always have something to talk about. He is someone who I look up to whenever I am feeling down.

 

Dawn has also been here a couple of days this week. She has also been fundraising for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and she is doing very well thus far. She has been training for a full marathon to be held in San Diego, but it seems now as though she might not be able to due to a medical condition. I give her a lot of credit for everything she does for cancer awareness.

 

Steve came by on Monday to say “hello” as well. I still don’t know if its absorbed into my brain yet that I am an uncle to one of the most beautiful babies I’ve seen.

 

A good friend of mine, Becky, and her mom stopped by the other day to visit. We talked for awhile and she gave me a Harley bag full of sour candy. Wish this mouth pain would go away so I can chow on this stuff. Also inside were some books, crossword puzzles, etc. Thank you so much for the visit, conversation, and goodies!

 

My mom has been with me pretty much everyday this week. She is hooked on the show “Heroes” now, and that seems to be our little bonding time. With my dad it has been “The Sopranos.” Tomorrow I think my dad is coming down so it appears I will switch back over to The Sopranos with him.

 

Also today, four good friends of mine from college stopped in for a couple of hours. Derrik, Tom, Adam, and Jason make up a pretty crazy group and need someone like me to calm them all down. Tom brought his Nintendo Wii which we played around on for an hour or so.

 

So that pretty much sums up my week thus far as far as any “activities” go. So what’s next medically?

 

Well the past few days my white blood cell count was at 200. It never actually hit 0. Yesterday and today it was at 300. Also something to be noted was that my ANC…a type of neutrophil (the good guys), was now at 20 instead of 10 the day before. Chances are very likely that this is all because Lindsey’s stem cells have already started producing her cells in my body. The only transfusions that I have needed the past week or two were platelets. Other than that, it appears as if all of my other counts are looking great and might even be ahead of schedule. We weren’t anticipating the kind of growth we’ve seen the past couple days as far as my WBC goes.

 

One of the main things I am looking forward to in the next week or so is for my mouth to start healing.

 

My fevers are down and my spirits are up!   Also note that I created a simple calendar on the main page so you can see my blood counts on a day-to-day basis.  I will add notes at the bottom of that calendar every now and then to better inform all of you.  Click here to view it.

 

Love

Eric