Journal 2/28

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Twelve days post transplant. I'm no longer neutropenic. My polyneurophils
are above 500, the point at which a person is considered neutropenic. What
does this mean? I no longer need to wear a mask when I leave the room.
Danger of life threatening infections is past. I will, however, need to
continue good hand washing and I wouldn't want to purposely expose myself to a
place with high germ concentration (school, public restroom, mall on busy
day, etc.). I will need to use common sense around a sick person. I
wouldn't want to shake their hand after they sneezed in it or allow them to
cough in my face. Actually, who would? As mentioned yesterday, it will take
many months for my immune system to be full strength again. Perhaps a year
to regain all the immunities I was vaccinated for as a child.

Overview of my blood counts:

Hematocrit	Yesterday(25%)	Today(26%)	Normal(34-55%)
Platelets	Yesterday(8,000)	Today (17,000 after transfusion)	Normal(150,000)
Neutrophils (Poly's)	Yesterday(460)	Today(1000)	Normal(7,000)
WBC's	Yesterday(600)	Today(1,200)	Normal(7,500)

My mucositis is rapidly improving. The mouth pain is beginning to decrease.
The doctors are going to try and take me off the PCA (pain pump) today. I
will begin taking pain medication orally as needed. I will also try eating
more so I can get off the TPN nutrition. When I get back to eating normal
again it could get expensive. I am normally a big eater and I have a lot of
ground to make up. I will be eating everything in sight. I want to regain
my weight quickly. I am presently about eight pounds under my normal body weight.

I had a scare yesterday morning. I was finishing up typing my journal and my
sight went all blurry. Everything was out of focus. Normally, this corrects
itself in a couple seconds. The blurriness continued for almost 30 minutes.
Finally, my vision returned to normal. The doctors did several tests and
everything appears normal with my eyes. It appears the muscles which control
focus fatigued from intense focusing on the computer and the chemo/radiation
may have made the eye muscles weaker than normal, increasing the time it
takes them to recover. Unfortunately, I am having a similar problem today
after about an hour on the computer.

Grandma and Papa Potthoff brought my boys up after church yesterday.
Returning home to be with them occupies my thoughts constantly. My pastor
and his wife came up and we shared a short communion service. Jamie Croom
stopped by yesterday as well. Michelle and I had a nice walk and she spent
the night with me. She seems to be sleeping pretty well on the fold out bed.
She's had plenty of time to get used to it. Hopefully, in another week
we'll share our own bed again.

It's amazing I've been away from home three weeks tomorrow. As I look back
on what I've been through, it has been a pretty intense three weeks. I am so
thankful to be through the worst of it. Now my patience will be put to the
test. The past three weeks have kept me pretty busy and I didn't think about
going home as much. My mind was pretty focused on getting through treatments
and their side effects. Now I am pretty much just hanging out developing a
bad case of cabin fever. Please pray for my ability to get through the
waiting.

I was listening to a song by a group called 'Big Tent Revival' while doing my
journal. One of the verses in the song said, "You made the universe, you can
mend me." It is pretty awesome to know that the God who created the entire
universe is healing me. Makes me feel awfully special.

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