Day +15. Another good day in the office! The blood counts continue to go up. The white cell count (wcc) is at 1.4, the neutrophils are 0.9, the platelets are 99 and the hemoglobin is at 10. They are talking about my going home. STOP, it is not even 4 weeks as yet. I was meant to be here for 6 weeks.
I met another Haematology Consultant today. I think there are 6 haematology consultants. I have a white board in my room where I track the blood counts. Amal had written down our goal of reaching 0.5 in my neutrophil count. Since meeting that goal he had put down some new goals. One is to avoid infections and the second is to avoid the Graft-versus-host-disease (GvHd). The consultant rubbed this out saying that you really can’t avoid GvHd as it is outside my control. I had to smile as not everything has to be within my control. In fact, I did not have anything under my control. The children understand this and this is all that matters!
I went outside my room for the first time in weeks. I walked to the shop with Pat this afternoon. My friend Bernard sent me a text this morning to say that while this is a small step, it has a massive significance. How true!
This morning, I spent a few minutes writing an email to the children on ‘preparing for my coming home’. I will share it with you in a future post. The first 100 days are crucial, but we would need to find a balance where everyone else can lead a normal life and put up with a few inconveniences, while I am at home.
The dietician, Grainne, came to see me today to talk about food hygiene when I go home (you see they are seriously looking at sending me home soon!). While I am on the immune suppression drug, cyclosprorin (This will probably be for about 3-6 months) it is very easy to end up in hospital with food poisoning. The focus is on food hygiene and not on a very healthy diet. No raw foods (I’ll miss my sushi), no food from salad bars (only packed slices of ham), no takeaways, no nuts (I’ll miss the nuts), only boiled water and the list goes on. Anyway, this is not a problem as Pat is a good cook and I will get to eat my curries.
The only problem with the dietician’s visit was that I was in the middle of watching the cricket match. SL lost two crucial wickets during this time. However, we are doing well in the cricket match and I think we should win this game. An amazing turn around from the previous match when we were well and truly beaten. This morning Kumar Sangakkara, a Sri Lankan who is now at the top of the world’s batting ranking, was on 3. He has had a very poor series so far, unable to score any runs. Something told me that today was his day and that he will go on and get a century. Well, I called Pat to get my Credit Card details and put a bet on this and made a very healthy profit as Kumar went on to score a century! It is a good thing that Pat does not read this blog as she will stop giving me my credit card details if she knows what I am up to in hospital!
Thank you for all your comments, good wishes and prayers. Looking forward to more cricket tomorrow! Though I will refrain from gambling and just enjoy the match. That’s all for now folks!
3 replies on “Update Day +15: Preparations for Coming Home”
This is truly amazing. We would need to get the flags out!! On a lighter note let me also know when you get these tips so i can put a bet as well!! take care & praying for you. love Mahesh
‘It is a good thing that Pat does not read this blog as she will stop giving me my credit card details if she knows what I am up to in hospital! [gambling]’
Reminds me of another gambling story:
Remember when we were on the amazing cruise ship with the casino on it? It was the afternoon and we were at sea. Rohan, yourself and I were floating around but you said you were going to head back to the room and ‘read a book’. Rohan and I thought nothing of it as we were ‘off to the pool’.
We meet ten minutes later in the casino!
Holy carrots Raomal, I’m still laughing at this post, hours after reading it so I have to comment! Your mix of the divine with the human is very funny and catches me off guard. I am in awe of the way you talk about your family, it is subtle and it whispers LOVE…. very, very loudly, making me laugh and cry. Truly, miracles are happening in every step of this journey of yours….. And I am convinced they will continue. Keep writing.