Day +1 (post-transplant)

Today, we went to the hospital for Chris' first follow up appointment post-transplant. Since Chris is still not exhibiting any major side effects and still has relatively high platelet levels, the appointment was fairly quick.

The view from Chris' hosptial room



They took blood tests, gave him antibiotics and went over all of the symptoms that Chris is having. We also met with the pharmacist while we waited for Chris' blood work to come back. We were basically told that although Chris is feeling okay right now, that by the end of the week he will likely start developing mouth sores (known as mucositis), losing his appetitie, developing diarrhea, and becoming extremely run down. Needless to say it was not the most upbeat meeting. However, the pharmacist did share Chris' love for cars, so they spend a considerable amount of time discussing what type of cars the other doctors drove and their favourite type of Ferraris (I zoned out during this part). This seemed to cheer him up considerably.



Chris during his hospital stay (sweet pants!)



As of today Chris white blood count is 0.1, so his chance for infection is still very high. We are taking his temperature often, and of course getting nervous any time it is slightly higher than usual. Chris had a temperature of 37.5, which is unusually high for him, so I made him retake it every half hour for a couple hours just to be sure (yah, I may be a little paranoid).

After the hospital, Chris spent most of the day napping. We tried watching a movie, but he was nodding off before we were 15 minutes into it. I think that the feeling of being extremely run down are definetly starting to kick in. While I do enjoy spending time with Chris while he is conscious (well, most of the time), since he hasn't slept through an entire night since starting chemotheraphy, I do think that all of this sleeping will help him feel better.  As I am writing this blog, Chris is actually falling asleep in his hands.

While he is not very descriptive when I ask him how he is feeling, he is saying that " he just doesn't feel well."

It looks like we have a long road ahead of us, but we are really grateful for all of the emails and messages we have been receiving. Sorry, that we have not had a chance to respond to them all, but we do read them all and really appreciate all of your advice, stories and well wishes.