Day + 16

Greetings from the hospital everyone. Hopefully this will be the last posting from this place…only time will tell. I am supposed to be released today which cannot come soon enough. At this point, there isn’t a whole lot that can keep me from leaving so I should be home bound by mid afternoon. Even though I have only been here for roughly 20 days on this stint, it has seemed like a lifetime and has been by far the most challenging. I can’t quite put my finger on as to why, but to say I am happy to leave is a huge understatement.

I know one huge thing that I will not miss is the menu, and the food that goes along with it. It’s funny because I have a very strong appetite which the doctors love, but I just can’t stomach this food anymore and as a result, my weight has dropped to 153 pounds, the lowest since my diagnosis. I can usually get a big breakfast down, but come lunch time and dinner time I struggle. I’m pretty much living on protein shakes, bars and drinks which doesn’t seem to be doing anything for me from a weight perspective. My guess is I will put this weight back on in no time upon my release.

So my departure plan couldn’t be better. Evey and I will leave the hospital today and head back up to my Dad’s house for the next 6 days. Then on the 13th, we will be moving into our new place in Del Mar. If the hospital had it their way, I would be in a hotel from today until the 13th, but that to me was ridiculous so we made the call just to head back to pop’s pad. It’s about a 50 minute drive so I’m still close enough to get here quickly in case something goes wrong.

Thank you to everyone who lent a helping hand in trying to find a place for us. The place we are going with was one of the first ones we really liked, but someone entered the scene and swooped it from us by writing them a check for 6 months of rent. We were bummed but figured there would be more out there, but the more we looked, the more we realized that that place was a gem. Well, as luck would have it, that fat check bounced and now the place is ours. Unfortunately as I said above, it won’t be ready until the 13th but it will be well worth the wait. It’s a stone’s throw from the beach and perfect for what we need until the April/May timeframe.

As far as my health goes, all is good. My counts are looking good and aside from being tired during random parts of the day, I feel great. My doctors continue to use the word amazing when describing my post transplant recovery so I can hang my hat on that for now. My counts for those of you keeping track are: White Blood Cells – 2,000, Hematocrit – 27.8, Hemoglobin – 9.7 and Platelets continue to climb to 149,000. All are exactly where they should be and the goal of my 3 visits per week to the Cancer Center here will be to make sure they remain in line.

That’s it for today everyone. Thanks for reading and we’ll catch up soon.

P.S. Sorry this is so long Kate...