Lindsey, RN gave me my dose of Velcade chemotherapy this morning at 6 AM - twelve house after the melphalan as ordered along with some Nexium (their substitute for Zantac) and Ativan. Seems as long as I sit pretty head up, I can keep the nausea and acid down. I'm almost afraid to mention that it hasn't been that bad so far ~
I called early to order my breakfast since it takes 45 minutes to an hour to deliver it to the room. Nothing sounds good, so I went with my old standard oatmeal and a side order of cream of wheat - I used to like that when my M used to make it. I wanted a banana, but they said they weren't allowed on the neutropenic diet. My nurses here on the 11th Floor, UCH said they could order me a banana, but they would have to wash it and peel it for ME - fine, just like home when Jani does it :)
Oh well, Lindsey, RN says my counts will begin to fall today and approach 0 for WBC count, so I have to be careful with my diet. Here are my counts this morning. My Hemoglobin is down from 11.6 to 10.6 and my white blood cell count is down form 12.0 to 7.3. However, my platelets are hanging in there from 297 yesterday to 276 this morning. Nicole, RN told me that the platelets are the last to fall and the last to recover during this stem cell process.
I won't be getting my stem cell transplant until around 6 PM this evening as 24 hours has to lapse between the melphalan and the new stem cells.
Judy, I have been following your blog for the past few weeks. I just want to commend you for you candor during your journey. This Saturday will mark my 9 month anniversary since my auto sct for MM. Currently I have had a complete response. My M-spike is zero and my bone marrow biopsy shows no myeloma cells. I wish you the same result. Although you may begin to feel progressively worse over the next few days, it does get much, much better. Hang in there and feel better quickly.
ReplyDeleteJodi