A short entry tonight as both Vanessa and I are pretty tired. She's still doing OK, although the chemo from a week ago is definately kicking in now, and the symptoms are becoming worse. However, they are nothing that we aren't expecting.
Vanessa is now neutropenic, which means her white blood cell counts are very low. The chemo has killed off her old stem cells (the damage is done before the transplant), so she is no longer making blood until the new harvested cells take residence in her bone marrow and start production again. This low count means she's very susceptible to infection now, and special precautions need to be taken.
Her diet has been restricted (not that she's got much appetite) to cut out anything that could lead to infection (fruit, soft cheeses etc). Also anyone entering the room must be healthy, free from colds etc, scrubbed hands and donned in a delightful apron, glove and mask combo as modeled by Kira below. Ok, the masks are optional, but better safe than sorry. She's still taking visitors, so she isn't in full isolation.
We're expecting her to remain neutropenic for around a week, although it maybe less as she was given back more than the normal number of stem cells (as she produced so many). Hopefully this should speed things along and aid her recovery.
2 comments:
Just to let you know I am thinking about you. Glad they were able to add those extra stem cells. You produced that bumper crop for a good reason! Fingers crossed it speeds up the process.
Hang in there you will soon be passed the lowest point and then to quote a song 'The only way is up' x x
Hi Vanessa, sounds like you are really going through it. We are keeping everything crossed that it is all successful. Take care. xxx
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