My new kindred spirit - Shawn visits September 17 2011

Through my blog, a 52 year old woman by the name of Shawn contacted me. She also has been recently diagnosed with multiple myeloma. She is about 1 month behind me in treatment and will be admitted to have her stem cell transplant on October 11th. Shawn came by this evening to visit with Jani and me. We discovered we have the same birthday, DECEMBER 8th which surely makes us kindred spirits. She just lost her hair last week too.

Shawn is headed to Italy for a short vacation before her stem cell transplant. Sure enjoyed her visit.
Now, that I have shingles that are not crusted over, I've been placed in contact isolation. I cannot leave the room and everyone coming in has to wear a yellow gown (note, Shawn is wearing hers as a cape just for the photo) and blue gloves.

Day 4 Afternoon Update September 17 2011

I waited until Jani came in the afternoon to help me shower. I peeled off all of the EKG leads they had on me yesterday. I don't think I reacted to their adhesive, but I felt like I had an irritation below my left breast from that one.

After my shower, it became clear that I had another case of shingles breaking out below my left breast area on my thorax. They don't look that impressive, but they have the all too familiar PAIN associated with them. Interestingly, the night doctor, Dr. Peterson, who came when I thought I was having a heart attack the other night told the night nurse Joan that my pain could be early warning of shingles on the way. Trish, the Nurse Practitioner came to look at them and along with  her consultation with the 11th Floor Pharmacist decided to take me off of Valtrex and put me on IV acyclovir 565 mg every 8 hours. Also had me take a Percocet and all was good after that.

The shingles I had before on my left rear end have dried up and are scabbed over.

My White Blood Cell count is now 1.1, but my hemoglobin is holding at 9.2 (anemic), and my platelets are down to 121(just a tad low).

Day 4 - Morning Update September 17 2011

Had a bit of an appetite this morning and ordered scrambled eggs and dried pieces of potato (they call them Colorado Potatoes).

I was able to eat the eggs and most of the potatoes. I'm still nauseated, but having food in my gut seems to help. If it gets worse, I can ask for 0.5 Ativan which helps and gives me a nap (2 for 1 deal). Still running Normal Saline at 125 cc hour and I like that.

Jani said my dog, Kemmer, finally caught a squirrel in their back yard today - bad for the squirrel, but I'm sure Kemmer was delighted. She has been calmly stocking them all summer. Jani is going to check with the vet if there is some type of shot Kemmer needs now because of the squirrel catch. She has a current rabies and just got the distemper booster yesterday.

Day 4 - Saturday September 17 2011

They draw my lab values each day at 4 AM and again at 4 PM. So far, my white blood cell count is hanging in there in the "1" range, platelets hanging on at 143 and anemic at 10.1. These values fall, probably by Day 7.