I'm Finally Home!

8/27/23

They released me from the hospital Friday night around 6:30 or so to go home. It was quite the departure for several reasons.

Reason one – we had packed up. David took two trips out to the car with stuff (hey, I basically moved in there!), and we were out the door to the unit. David had pressed the button for the elevator, and I got called back for more "monitoring" or whatever. Again, I got called back to my room. I really don’t want to talk about it because it was so upsetting, but the result is we stayed another couple of hours which was spent mainly in the fetal position in the bed trying not to panic.

Reason two – I have now spent 2 months – 60 days – with these nurses and techs and folks. They have been so kind and caring for me, it was hard to say good bye. I don’t know what’s next for me, but these were very strong relationships to leave behind.

Anyway, enough about that, I’m home! For the next week or so I need to go to the Doctor’s office everyday to get some iv antibiotics and have them take care of my PICC line. That’s pretty easy, so I can manage that minor annoyance. I’ll also need to pay attention to my pooch Mothra, I can manage that as well!

Last check I had a few white blood cells. They are looking for my neutrophils to be at least 50, and I was at 7. That said, the pesky mouth sores have disappeared, and my infection risk is lower, but still quite high. I’m not going into stores or really out in the public. I’ll go on walks outside, and to the Dr’s office (and I did go to Lazy Mike’s and eat outside today) but that’s about it for right now.

Aside from the update, we are now waiting for the results of Friday morning’s bone marrow biopsy. That will dictate if we can proceed to the bone marrow transplant (which is what we want), or if there is another treatment to pursue. It’s a wrenching place to be, just waiting for test results. We’ve had bad news before, but we’ve had a glimmer of real hope this last treatment worked better than before. Onward.

Also, and finally, you know I still have hair? Twice it was supposed to fall out 14 days after I received a certain chemo. Anyway, I now think it's my red hair that hasn't fallen out! Most of the grey fell out and I think the brown as well. Now it's just auburn. Huh. (The pic below isn't all that accurate in the parking garage lighting ...)