Saturday, November 19, 2011 – Day 12. Third day inpatient in the hospital. Still in lots of pain and on lots of medicine to manage my pain. The good news is that I started getting Neupogen shots to help kickstart my immune system to produce more neutrophils. I have 30 neutrophils today. We’re thinking about naming them. Any suggestions?

The amusing thing about today is that my head is getting “artier” and shinier, as you can see from the pictures.

little hair left on top

less hair in the front

As I continue to get daily Neupogen shots, my immune system should get stronger which will help resolve a lot of the pain that I am experiencing right now. In the meantime, I’m continuing to keep my spirits up, stay positive, maintain a sense of humor, and be very grateful that I have Jacqui in my life as the most amazing wife and caretaker.

Thursday, November 17, 2011 – We went to the doctor today. My bloodwork looked fine. I had told them of some pain in my rear and they said that the white blood cells that I now have may be going there to deal with an infection and that is why it is hurting.

So we came home. My bowels moved. And burned. A lot. And totally wiped me out. I had to go lay down and take a 3-4hr nap, during which time my bowels continued to burn. When I woke up, I took my temperature. It was 100.2, just one-tenth of a degree shy of having to call the doctor and go inpatient. Something was not right. Twenty minutes later, I took my temperature again. 100.8 – too high. So I called the hospital, which was a fiasco and I’ll spare you the boring details, but the gynecologist who returned the page from the call service was very interesting! In a nutshell, the hospital said they had a bed available on the 11th floor so I could come in and go straight there and check in as an inpatient, and skip going to the emergency room first.

We ate some dinner, grilled cheese and tomato soup, and then left for the hospital. Downside, we missed Thursday night football, and it wasn’t on at the hospital. Bummer. We got checked in, and then we had to sort out my meds, go get a chest xray, and get settled into our room. Unfortunately, the main light wouldn’t turn off, so maintenance came about midnight to fix the lights. We stayed in the family room for an hour while he was working on the lights. The good news is he got them fixed, and around 1:30 am we got to go back to our room. I think we went to sleep about 2am. It’s been a long, long day. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

We hope to be able to go home from the hospital on Saturday or Sunday.