Thursday +29 (9:00 PM)

The morning started out a little rough for Jackie. She required the wheelchair to get to the hospital visits. This was due to problems with back pain and nausea.

Once we arrived at the hospital she continued to be nauseated. This wasn't helped by the fact that the lady in the other bed was also nauseated. The other lady began to throw up and guess what? It was like someone who yawns...it makes you want to yawn as well. In this case it was a little worse than yawning. About the time the two roommates were playing The Vomit Symphony the doctor walks in and gets to play nurse for awhile. For a little while we had both trash cans in full operation. So...that's the worst of the news. After that things got better for Jackie (not sure about the other lady). The doctor commented that if she is only having one or two "symphonies" a day that is OK for this point in the process.

As with most days now her strength improves throughout the day and the nausea seems to get better. She still isn't eating much, but she is getting calories via fluids. The problem she has with fluid retention a couple of weeks ago is long past. In fact, as of this morning she had lost about 8-9 pounds from when we began the transplant. If you compare the maximum weight gain due to fluids to today's weight she has lost about 25-27 pounds over the last two weeks. She says if she can bottle this Weight Watchers doesn't stand a chance!

Today we went for another drive. We toured the local countryside for about 2 hours. It is a little cool outside. In fact it is snowing just northeast of here!

Jackie's counts continue to do VERY well! Her counts (actually yesterday's counts) were 10.0 for RBC up from 9.8. Her WBC count was 5.0 up fro 4.1 the day before. her platelets were 161, up from 114 the day before. Her neutrophils are at 1.61. This is also very good. This now puts two of her three counts in the "normal" range. The nurse made the comment as I was receiving the counts, "With those counts, we won't be seeing you long around here!"

Of course, there could (and likely will be) difficulties ahead. We could still face serious GvHD problems which could be popping up at any time. But, all-in-all I can see steady improvement. Tonight she is watching TV and snacking on her various assortment of pills!

Until Later,

Bruce and Jackie
From Rochester, MN