Day 3

Lots of happenings to report today from E131.

Not having been at the hospital on Day 2, I have to comment on the major improvement in Miss E’s energy level and overall wellbeing that I am witnessing today compared with Day 1. When I left the hospital on Wednesday, I was terribly worried about how she was going to cope throughout the night, without us there to help her during her awakened moments. As Josh’s account illustrated quite well, Day 1 was a very hard one for Erica. Though she was heavily sedated, the 36 hours following her transplant were among the most challenging that she has faced in her 2+ years of treatment.

Thankfully, today is off to a great start. Miss E rose shortly after I arrived at 8:30am, and showed a tremendous amount of energy throughout the morning. With Judy’s help she rinsed out her poor mouth and throat, which bothered her quite a bit throughout the night, but that was the only help she needed to get the day started. She completed the rest of her morning routine independent of Judy and me – brushing teeth, showering, dressing in fresh clothes, opening mail, etc. We no longer have a “Sleeping Beauty” on our hands (although as I write this at nearly 11am she has dosed off, presumably tired from her valiant effort a few hours earlier), just a “Beauty”.

The Doctors came by to do their usual morning check-in. They confirmed for us what Miss E had suspected, that her mouth and throat soars had slightly worsened since the day before. Although she was told to expect the soars as a result of the chemo, I think she has been surprised by their severity. Her white blood cell counts are very low right now. Yesterday and today they have been hovering at around 0.3, which is too low for her body to be able to heal itself. So, unfortunately, the soars will persist until her counts go back up, which is expected to occur anytime between Day 14 and Day 21. In the interim, the Doctors have prescribed a hearty drug, akin to Morphine, to ease the pain. During the day Miss E is coping very well without the drug, and, for now, only plans to take it at night.