Day -6

Settling in to my room here at Scripps. The chemo is coming hot and heavy, each dose lasting 2 hours repeatable 4 times per day for 6 days. After the busulfex i'll be on another similar drug for 2 days. Its called Cytoxan 4. The cocktail of Busulfex and Cytoxan is supposed to make my old stem cells (and others) go away.
Dose 7 of 16 of busulfex is coming up at midnight tonight. Theyre also giving me an antibiotic drug, an anti-seizure iv and a pill to prevent gerd. I'm a little dizzy from the Adivan but basically free of other side-effects from busulfex yet. However, I seem to have caught a permanent case of hiccups. Luckily it stops after I go to sleep.
Well, I have 2 more days of Busulfex and 2 of Cytoxan yet to cope with. If I'm lucky my body will avoid getting some of the more serious side effects. I'm still eating pretty well. The food is neutrophenic so it doesnt contain nasty little bugs that could hurt my weakened immune system. No fresh fruit! bummer. My blood counts are taken every morning and are starting to slide. This is good. They'll let the white counts slide to zero. I'll get plateletes so i dont bleed to death. and I'll get red blood cells so i dont die of a heart attack. Donor stem cells will be infused on day +0, next Wed. They will move into healthy bone marrow and do the job that my stem cells stopped doing. A nurse just came in with something for my hiccups. Compazine. I looked this up and think I will pass on it. In 1o min, the nurse comes to take my vitals and then i get 2 more Adivan in prep for the midnight-2apm buselfex poisoning. Whoopee! They tell me to walk around the ward floor 3 times a day. So far so good. I'm going to checkout the treadmill machine in the patient room tomorrow. Family is visiting every day, hanging out. It's so sad when they have to leave. We also sense your prayers, good will, and positive energy. Thank you! You are an inspiration to us.
Regards all!