Day 16 - Exit Queen

Penny came up with the day's mantra. I had the line taken out at 8 and went in early to do my exit interview. The P.A., Trudy, said I am doing very well. I might get more fatigued later and there is a chance that I could get some kind of other cough or shortness of breath, I should be use to that, right. If it happens all I have to do is get more steroids and it should go away. Hopefully it won't happen though. I also should be able to eat pretty normal just carefully, and I can some what clean my house. Anyway, she cleared me to go home; so, we went home around 2:30. It's so nice to be home.

Day 15 - Like Monk, my hands I clean

We decided last night not to go to the butterfly pavilion today since the biosphere where the butterflies are is 80% humidity and I can't be in a green house or anything that humid because I could develop pneumonia from it. So instead we got the boys excited about the aquarium. They had sharks and otters and you could pet stingrays. There was one section of the aquarium that was a tropical rain forest, that was humid, so I almost ran through it. I also gave the boys squirts of hand sanitizer almost every 15 minutes. They had fun though and that's what matters.

Day 14 - Day 14, Feeling more healthy than a salad green.

Deliese needs to be credited again for all of the recent mantras. Today I went in to the clinic for 1 1/2 hours to get the CBC and talk to Dr. Brunvand. He got it scheduled to get my Central Line Catheter out on Wednesday morning before my exit interview. I am so looking forward to going home on Wednesday. The boys have really been enjoying the pool; but it is so hard to keep them quiet in the apartment; and Lizzie is worse then them. Tomorrow hopefully we can take them to the Butterfly pavilion to see Rosie the Tarantula; if we go when it is the least crowed I don't have to wear a mask. The boys got almost all of the books about spiders at the library; so they are really into it right now.

Day 13 - Speedin' along like Lightning McQueen

No clinic today. It's so nice just to be in the apartment without having to have an iv drip. We sang all of the articles of Faith with the boys and other church songs since we could go to church today. My cousin Nina is coming to visit again this afternoon and my mom just got here to help out. When she got here Derek and I put on the hospital masks and made her do it. She didn't want to put it on her nose so it made it really funny and I couldn't help but tell her it was a joke. She asked how we keep the masks on the boys.
I just want to say, thank you again for all of your continued thoughts and prayers. I know that many of you are fasting for me today and I want you to know how much I really appreciate it. It has been so much easier going through this with the knowledge that I have of the gospel.

Day 12 - Into my future I delve

12 is a hard number to rhyme with, luckily Deliese came up with this one again. Today I only had to go in for a CBC and a shot at 8 am. I asked to take a potassium pill for the first time instead of being there for 2 hours to get an iv of it. They don't usually let the patients take the pills for fear of it being so big and it upsetting your stomach, but hey it saves you 2 hours! It wasn't that large or upsetting.

Day 11 - Seeing my kids is heaven

I feel great today!!! Derek and the kids are coming down and I got my discharge papers. I will be meeting with the PA on Wednesday and then hopefully I can go home and come back down to see McSweeny on Monday morning. He has next week off for vacation so I can't meet with him sooner. I get to stop the iv drips tonight; and since it is so hot outside Derek can enjoy the apartment as cool as he wants it because we don't have to pay the energy bill. Right now I have more energy than I thought I would. So things are looking up.

Day 10 - My tastebuds are back again!!!

Things are starting to look up! Last night Tammy made a blueberry parfait and I could taste it and it was wonderful. Today at the Clinic Dr. McSweeny said that I don't have to have one of the iv drugs that was every 8 hours. And he said that the kids can come back down! So tomorrow they will be here. I also found out that my white blood count was up to 1.3 which means that I am no longer at the worst stage and my stem cells are engrafting! It will probably be around August 11th that I will be able to go back home. I was able to get my discharge papers; and I will probably have a discharge meeting late next week. McSweeny said that they just want to monitor me for the next week.