Today was a pretty great day. My counts came up again this morning and my red blood cells actually came up as well which they’ve always needed a boost for in the past. I’m also keeping all kinds of other levels in a good place (potassium, magnesium, etc.) which has meant fewer pills to fix those things. Overall, the only thing lagging behind and not responding well to the treatments we’ve tried is my platelets. But this was to be expected and I went through this with each of my previous admissions. My platelets had dropped to 1,000 overnight and our transfusion today brought it back up to 3,000. At least it was a bump in the right direction and not another drop. They added a steroid and another medication that should help my body to hold the platelets it has and potentially increase their production. I’ll probably have another transfusion and at some point my body will start making their own.

The increase in white cells has practically erased my mouth and throat issues. I ate completely normally today and just have some minor irritation still in throat when swallowing. Anything super spicy or acidic is still a problem for my mouth but it hasn’t stopped me from eating a noodle teriyake dish, peanut butter granola bars or dark chocolate. Maybe it was the 2-day withdrawal from chocolate that had me in a little funk lately. Let’s not let that happen again!

They also re-scanned my abdominal region today to check on how my liver infection is doing. My infectious disease doctor feels that it is probably gone, but we will continue treatment for it for a few months to make sure it stays that way. My body temperature has also dropped back to a normal 97.9 and my heart rate seems to be coming back down. I’ve only had two low-grade fevers this time at two isolated moments on those days. They immediately tested me for all kinds of things and started me on 4 antibiotics. Apparently, one of my blood tests did show a strep somewhere but all of the medications took care of it within 24 hours. They don’t mess around here at all. When you are discharged, you are given a card that one nurse refers to as your “get of of jail free card.” It indicates that you are a recent transplant patient and, should you need to go to the emergency room for anything, they take you immediately. Even a low fever could potentially be indicative of something like pneumonia and that needs to be treated as fast as possible. It’s reassuring to know these things are available to me once I go home, but I hope to never need it.

The only negative to my current situation is that my hair finally started to fall out again yesterday. However, this is the last time that will happen and once it starts growing back in, it is coming in for good!

Other good news today, the Ravens squeezed out a win in a game that was way too close for comfort and I had a lovely surprise call from Suzanne this morning which reminded me that there are other super moms who have been through things like this before and everything worked out just fine in the end. Suzanne, I’m so sorry I never got a chance to call you back! Expect to hear from me this week. And Brian’s mom came down yesterday to stay for the week to help take care of the kids. Since the boys are now bunking together in Ty’s room, we are converting Kieran’s room into a more official guest room for now. At first I wasn’t sure how I felt about it, but now I am super excited to have a new room to decorate and a dedicated place for guests to stay. And with time on my hands after I get home, this will be a great creative project for me to work on. Who wants to be my first guest??? I’ll start taking bookings for December. And you all know how much I like to make breakfast so a lovely brunch will be included in your free stay.

Lastly, I came up with an awesome idea for a Christmas present for someone special this year. It will take some time to plan and pull together and, fortunately for me, I just happen to have some time on my hands. Like I said before, I will be going overboard on the holidays this year. They have never meant so much to me before and I want, more than anything, to be able to give gifts to my family and friends that show them how truly appreciative I am of their love and support throughout these last few months.

The nurse I had tonight gave me a mixed cocktail of Ativan and my pain med in one fast injection. That’s not usually how they do it so I’m quite relaxed, painfree and on the verge of passing out. Before I go, I want to send a shout out to Bryn and Karen who contacted me this week. It was so great to hear from both of you and I hope I’ll see you soon. Karen, I remember looking at Life of Pi when we started our reading group! I’ll have to pick up.

So with that I’m going to go to sleep and eagerly await my 4 am blood draw to see what my numbers are doing tomorrow. Good night.