Supergirl is going home at 5 o’clock today with a white blood count of 9,000!!!! Normal people range from 4,000-11,000. I am healthier than I have been in months.
I’ll still be blogging everyday because I have lots more to do on this journey – this is only the beginning. Tonight I’ll be too busy hugging and kissing my kids to write anymore. I look forward to seeing you on the other side 
Today was awesome. I ran through a whole list of questions with the doctor first thing this morning and I was pleasantly surprised with all of her answers. As far as how long I will be home for, it could be anywhere from 2-4 weeks. Everything depends on my blood counts that will tested weekly and then they will perform another bone marrow biopsy to see if any of the cancer cells have returned and at what stage. The results of that test will determine the course of my future treatments. I had also been told that I wouldn’t be able to travel at all because I had to stay within an hour’s distance of the hospital in case I started to run a fever or had any sort of emergency. However, she said that if my counts are good, she didn’t see any reason that I couldn’t take a vacation. So guess who’s getting out of town for July 4th? And thank goodness, because we have a family tradition to spend it at our vacation house in the Poconos and Ty has been telling me since I left that we would “pack for Milford as soon as I got home.” Now, not only do I not have to break his heart, but he’s right, we will get packing.
Lastly, I was asking about swimming and yoga and weight training and a lot of the other activities I do that are limited by the PICC line in my arm. She said that if I am going to be home for 4 weeks, we could just remove this when I leave and insert a new one when I check back in. That too, was awesome news. I won’t have to worry about picking up Kieran now or having it flip in downward dog or wrapping it up each time it could get wet. It means complete physical freedom.
More good news? It’s 9 pm and I have not had 1 fever today!!!! I also have eaten 3 rounds of very light solid foods and not had any debilitating cramps or emergency trips to the bathroom.
On top of all of that, I had a great visit with Matt followed by an in-room chair massage from my wonderful sister-in-law, Stephanie. She worked out a terrible pain I had developed in my shoulder from sleeping in awkward positions under the cooling blanket over the last three days. The massage also, of course, generally just helped to decompress from everything. When my brother got here we went for a walk down 8 flights of stairs to go check out the nurses garden across the street. We then came back up the 8 flights of stairs. Unfortunately I’m not quite in Rocky-style condition right now. Soon though.
Before signing off I wanted to share something Kay emailed me yesterday.
Be kinder than necessary,
for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.
Live simply,
Love generously,
Care deeply,
Speak kindly,
and pray continually.
Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass…
It’s about learning to dance in the rain.
I am writing early tonight because I am filled with good news. Most importantly, my white blood cell count has come up to 3,200 and my neutrophils are at 51% – what that means is that if I didn’t have fevers and a stomach issue I could actually come home tomorrow! The other good news is that the CT scan they ran last night showed that my stomach infection is healing. Once I can go a few days without fevers and iron out these stomach issues, I can come home! Soon, soon, soon.
I’m too excited to talk about anything else tonight, I just wanted to share the news!
Kim sent this to me today and I loved it:
He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche
It’s late, but I’m gonna do this. I’m once again under the cooling blanket and REALLY frustrated because I think this passes the 48 hr. mark that the doctors were talking about. I also noticed that I’m starting to get these blotchy brown spots which is what they noticed a few days ago and I didn’t. So to me, that seems to be getting worse. They said that one of the huge challenges when giving medications to someone with no immune system is that it is much easier for your system to try to reject it. I had another CT scan of my chest and abdomen to double-check what is going on there and further rule out anything like pneumonia. They have checked me for that a few times already. The other thing my nurse mentioned to me is that, and this is awesome news, my white blood cell count took a huge jump this morning. Yeah! But she said that it’s possible my new immune system is trying to fight something off and we can’t figure out what.
I’m focusing on the good news and know that the higher my white cells come up, the better I’ll feel. But I would by lying if I didn’t say I’m a little frustrated with the doctors telling me each day, that “it’s just one or two more days and your stomach will be all better.” I want more than anything for that to feel better.
So I’m not allowed to eat anything and haven’t had any real food for a few days but lying here under the cooling blanket I’ve developed quite a handful of cravings. Trust me, I have no appetite for them now, but as soon as I’m better, here’s the list:
There are so many more things, but I thought I would start with that. It’s good to have things to focus on
I was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia at the end of May. On June 1, 2010 I began chemo. This is my blog, my digital diary of my experience with cancer at 34. More importantly, it is a record of the power of the mind and the power of love and friendship and – it will show – that with these things you can overcome anything.