I don’t think of myself as especially superstitious; however, for the next two days being particularly careful with mirrors, avoiding walking under ladders, and watching for butterflies in my garden for good luck couldn’t hurt, right?? We found out today that Bobby’s white blood counts rose for the 3rd day in a row!! Woo hoo!! In stem cell transplant world, that is a sign of engraftment, and engraftment is one of the many things that have to happen before one can be released from the hospital. He also officially has absolute neutrophils again which gives him a small amount of protections from germs. The other criteria that must be met to be released includes being able to take and keep down in pill form all the various medications that he must take going forward to protect again Graft vs. Host Disease, protect his kidneys and liver, keep his electrolyte levels normal, etc., etc. He also must be drinking at least one liter of fluids per day, eating small amounts of bland food, walking/staying out of bed for long lengths of time, and have the mucusitis/nausea/diarrhea/vomiting under control.
His pharmacist officially converted all meds to pill form this afternoon, and today he ate a little and drank over a liter with no awful consequences. He also got to leave the 17th floor for the first time today, so our walk included the 24th floor sitting area, “The Park” on 2nd, and a few random hallways. As of now, the plan is for release sometime Wednesday morning.
Tomorrow I will be cleaning our house from top to bottom. Chores at home have been sorely neglected during this hospital stint, so I will have a busy day getting things ready. I’ve never been this excited about cleaning!!! I even scheduled an appointment for Max to get a bath and nail trim on Wednesday.
Of course we know that he will be coming back to MDA every day for a while to check blood counts and receive fluids, and there is still much uneasiness about the future with GVHD, biopsies, viral infections, and CT scans always looming. However, those thoughts do not dampen our thankfulness and joy for today! Guess what I’m diffusing in the Dew Drop in our room tonight? It seems perfect for this day–two drops Joy and three drops Orange. Psalm 118:24–“This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.”