If you read Ray's post today, you learned that he has now been in the hospital 40 days and 40 nights. He said it's hard to believe it has been that long. I say has it only been 40 days?
I've been here at the hospital for a portion of each of those 40 days. Most of the days I've traveled from home to be here--an hour and a half round trip. Some of the days I have come here from my work in Provo, making close to a three hour driving trip those days. A couple of times I've made two trips to the hospital in one day. I estimate that I've spent over 72 hours in my car (the equivalent of three complete days.) I'm sorry to say that I don't have much to show for those 72 hours like listening to 30 books or finishing the New Testament reading, etc. But I do have a car that is filled with two overnight bags, juice bottles, water bottles, an extra coat, two pair of shoes, a change of clothing, Ray's dirty laundry, a See's Candy box, gas receipts, and, of course, garbage. I sometimes feel like I'm living out of my car like some homeless person. I guess I'll call my Explorer my home away from home.
Seriously though, Ray has been great. On his visit today, the PA remarked how amazingly patient Ray has been through all of this. He's right.
He's Back
For the past week, Ray has been acting more and more like his old self. He seems to have more energy and no longer seems continually exhausted. His sense of humor is back in full force and he has fun joking with the nurses. He's also teaching occasional grammar lessons when needed to the staff (sound familiar?)
He has a mini office set up in his room with two bedside tables in the corner to hold his computer and printer, and a chair. There's also an exercise bike and another chair for watching TV or visitors in another corner. There's a recliner in the other corner and the hospital bed is in the center. He putters around during the day, working on the computer for a while, then goes for a walk, watches TV, or rides a bike. He's becoming an exercise fanatic riding the bike for 40 min yesterday while watching a DVD. Sweet.
It's soooo good to see him looking and acting better.
Transplant Updates
He continues on high doses of steroids for his GVHD and he seems to be tolerating them pretty well. He just finished his second meal that actually had some solids in it. He had Rice Crispies for lunch and rice for dinner. For someone who was allowed ice chips only to wet his mouth for over 9 days, this is a huge improvement. His system seems to be tolerating the new diet well so tomorrow they may let him add some protein. Yum.
He still is getting complete nutrition through his IV as well as several other meds. They say if he progresses his diet to eat enough to sustain himself without any setbacks, he'll probably go home by the end of the week.
So we're progressing. The main thing is that there is, indeed, progression. The blood counts continue to be good. The new bone marrow cells are doing what they're programed to do. So we'll continue on our road to healing, little by little.
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