January 27th, 2018

It has been a couple days since my last update.  This is partly because there has been nothing to talk about.  Things have been running their course without many hiccups which is great news.  The saying around here is "boring is good".

Today marks exactly two weeks since I entered the hospital.  It is very hard to look out the windows around here and see that I live right over there, but know I can't go there quite yet.  On the up side, I got two weeks down, two or three weeks to go.

As I explained in earlier posts, the plan is to take my white blood cell count down to zero, stay there a few days to let the bone marrow (stem cells) reboot, and then recover.  The day before I started chemo my white blood cell count was around 1100, as of this morning it sits at 20.  This is good.  By tomorrow or the next day it should down to zero.  Being at zero means no immune system so I have be as careful as I can.

Doctors and nurses here keep telling me that it is not "if" but "when" you get a fever.  They know it is going to happen and they already have an arsenal of drugs to deal with.  I figure every day I make it without a fever is one less day I may have to deal with a fever.  So far so good.

I still have not seen any signs of my hair falling out, but I have a feeling it will not be long now if it is going to happen.  The chemo I am on goes after fast growing cells, i.e. White blood cells.  But hair and beards are also a fast growers and that is why most people lose them.  Most people would agree that my beard is very fast growing.  We shall see! The guy in the room next to me did not lose any hair.

Thank you everyone for your words of encouragement, your prayers, your gifts and your food.  It really helps my spirits and attitude.