Day 2, Skies are blue

Skies are blue today! Katie continues to do great. Just a bit of acid reflux. And the smell seems to have gone away. Penny, the nurse, continues to talk about how Katie is a great example of how they want bone marrow transplant patients to feel/act/etc.

So, with this rhyme/mantra thing... we're looking for some help coming up with good ones. Send us emails with your suggestions and everyday we'll post them in the blog. We're looking for some fun creativity from everyone. Make us (and everyone who reads them) smile! This will be your chance to become a famous (or infamous) poet!

Day 1 is so much fun

So Penny said I needed to start a mantra for my days after the transplant, and they had to be happy; so day 1 is so much fun. I've had some acid reflux which is not so much fun but not horrible on the spectrum of what could be happening. My blood counts are pretty low today so I will most likely have to get a transfusion tomorrow or Thursday.

The exterminator came today and couldn't find any bed bugs but he set up sticky tape around the walls to get them if they come out at night. The crib is gone so hopefully there will be no more worries. I just hope Lizzie is still okay and it didn't go back to Johnstown with her, my poor sweetie. It is so hard right now to be away from my kids. I think I called home at least 5 times.

Day 0 - T-Day

Happy Birthday to me! My nurse, Penny started singing to me when we got in the clinic today. My white blood cells are still there so I am still hanging on. It was a pretty long process because there was one more person getting his cells back today too, so I had to wait for him to get his first. They gave me a lot of premeds and that are making me sleepy. We watched the rest of the 24 season while waiting. The inserting of the cells was very painless, just cold. I might be starting to get mouth sores but that is low on my problem list right now.

The kids went back up to Johnstown today; it was so very hard to see them leave. Hopefully they will be able to come back next week. We have had one problem with this apartment since we got here and hopefully it will be remedied soon. Lizzie had a rash on her head and back, she itch the whole time she was here. When they got home Carla, Derek's mom took her to the pediatrician he said it looks like bed bugs, yeah. So the crib that they put in our room for Lizzie had bugs in it, and it might be in our clothes and the rest of the sheets. This apartment wasn't really cleaned when we got here, there is a pee stain in the corner, the bathroom that I have to use alone is really dirty on the grout and they don't have any housekeeping unless you speed $100/week. We have to either go to another hotel for the night and wait for an exterminator tomorrow to see how bad the bug problem is; or stay in it until we get more information. I'm just glad she didn't have chicken pox or something else.

Day -1

Tomorrow is T-day. My new birthday. So far I am not feeling too bad. A little achy, tired and my mouth tastes funny most of the time but that is it right now. I think I might take a nap soon. The kids are still here until tomorrow and it makes me so happy to have them here. They are probably going to leave tomorrow morning when my mom comes up to watch them. My cousin Nina came to visit yesterday and today my friends Steff Wright and Erin Chorak are planning on visiting.

Tomorrow the plan is to go in at 9:30 and get IV fluids for an hour the stem cells through an IV and then another hour of fluids. The nurse today said that the preservatives that they put in the stem cells smell so for the next 24 hours I will smell pretty much like rotten garlic everyone around me will smell it. Today I got a CBC and 2 hours of fluids, patassium and magnisium. They told me after I start the antibiotics, antifungal and antiviral pills I will have a fever and have a blood transfusion. After 5-10 days they will give me shots to boost my white blood cells so my immune system will go up after that. I think within the next few days I will have the no white blood cells at all.

Day -4

Still not too bad of a day. I have had to go to the bathroom at least 4 times in the last 2 hours. I guess that just means that my kidneys are healthy. They tell me that tomorrow will be the same as today and Saturday I will come in at 8 and have 1 hour of Chemo and then wait for the doctor to see me. There are a lot of outpatient transplants right now so they are very full and crazy. Monday it looks like I will go into the hospital for the stem cells to flow back into my body.
The boys and Lizzie got to go with Grandma and Grandpa and two of their cousins to the zoo today so they had a very, very fun day already. They even came back with new snake toys. Right when they came back to the apartment they feel asleep.
Oh, well here is trip #5 to the bathroom!

Day -5

The kids came down last night and immediately wanted to go to the swimming pool. We went to Applebee's for dinner (don't tell the nutritionist, but the doctor said it was okay this week) and then the boys and Derek went down to the pool for a swim. This morning I came in for Chemo and went back to the apartment and the boys went for another dip in the pool; they love it. I do have to say I am getting very sleepy today and I also had insomnia last night for a little while. My nurse, Penny is telling me to make sure I take every day one day at a time. She is hallarious, I think we will be working with her for the most part through the whole treatment. So far when I come in here they keep me in a little room with my drip. I haven't really seen that many other patients; but Penny tells me there are a few that are around my age with kids, so she would like to act as a cruise director and get us all together. I have had to go the bathroom almost none stop all day. They pump a continual bag of saline the whole time so I am really getting full of fluids.

Day -6

So yesterday was my day -7 from transplant. Transplant day is 0 and everyday after that day counts up. They have already told me that the day of transplant is my new birthday. The Chemo drug that they gave me yesterday is alcohol based so they told me that I was going to feel like I had a bad hangover. So at least know I can tell my kids how bad a hangover is! I've experienced it. I have a horrible headache in the center of my head for most of the day and night, I felt a little nauseaus but not too bad because of all of the majorly expensive nausea drugs they give you. It was a full 6 hours yesterday and I was only planning on two. The coordinator told me to come in at 12 to get started and then at 9 yesterday so called and said I needed to be in early because it was a long day. So I had to scramble around and get everything packed faster; because of course I waited until the last possible moment to do that. At least I was able to enjoy my family on Saturday instead of worrying about what to bring for this or clean the house.

Today I feel much better. We even found the pool for the kids and the laundry room in the apartment. The kids are on there way down to Denver now. They didn't join us yesterday because the apartment company didn't have the 2nd bedroom furnished. They will actually get the bed in there tomorrow so tonight they will sleep on the floor or on the couch in the living room. They already have a crib in the master bedroom. So last night we talked to the boys through the web cam. It was pretty hard because they were moving a lot and the sound kept going out. They kept asking if I was okay and it was really hard not to cry. Isaac almost cried when he was asking to come to Denver last night but he did a good job of being a big boy. I can't wait to get my hugs and snuggles tonight.