0.2

Day +12 (D 150)

I'm twelve days out from my transplant and everyone assures me that I'm doing well. The doctors continue to caution me that it will be a little while before my counts start coming up. I've been walking and using my foot bike inorder to keep my heart healthy and to avoid pneumonia. One of my nurses told me that I'll spike a fever before I get out of here. I already took care of that with the rabbit ATG.

We got my blood results late this morning and there were a few interesting anomalies. My WBC is 0.2. This means that I made a white blood cell. My doctor cautioned me that this could be a misread, but if it isn't, then I made a 100% improvement. My hemoglobin also came up, as did my red blood cell count. Chris wondered if I was dehydrated when the blood was drawn. We learned that being dehydrated is the same as reducing a sauce. The more dry you are, the higher your numbers will appear. I'm being cautiously optimistic. I understand that the results could be an anomaly and that tomorrow I'll be back to a WBC count of 0.1. I'll try not to be disappointed if that's the case.

For the moment, I choose to believe that the stem cells are settling into my bones and doing what they're supposed to. The bone pain continues, but it's not so bad. The bone pain means that I'm making cells, so I'll tolerate as much pain as I have to. I have more energy than I've had in a while and my appetite is getting better.

If I really did make one white blood cell, then I can make more. This doesn't mean that I've engrafted, but I'm on my way.