A salt free day

Yesterday was quite tiring and, after resting in the afternoon, we watched a movie (Bottle Shock) that had been ordered for us by neighbors. The movie is about a competition in France in 1976 between well known French wines and unkown, to most of the world, Napa Valley wines. Napa Valley won. I actually feel quite good, have a good appetite and my only complaint is a frequent tired feeling and nearly complete loss of hair from my head, even the beard.

Instead of meeting with Dr. Tricot yesterday at 11:00 AM as had been scheduled, I got a phone call from Andrea, PA, Thursday afternoon telling me that the doctor's 10AM appointment had been canceled and would I consider coming in an hour earlier How could I refuse, but it meant an earlier wake up time and more congested traffic on the way to the hospital. We were at the hospital at 9:00 and after blood draws, vital sign mesurements, and consultation with Dr. Tricot's nurse we anticipated a long wait to see Dr. Tricot, but he surprised us by coming into the room about 20 minutes before 10:00 and stayed until 11:00. Nancy joind the visit a little after 10:00 and ably took notes for me on what the doctor had to say.

Nancy and Dr. Tricot both noticed that my ankles and feet were swollen--I had noticed as early as Tuesday when dressing to come home from the hospital, and they may have been swollen sometime before because the baggy hospital pants that I wore hid them from me--and they jointly suggested that I should cut out salt. I told them that I am not addicted to anything and I have not added salt to anything that I have eaten since getting home yesterday. I think that attributing swollen feet to excessive consumption of salt is pure guess work and not worthy of one of the foremost bone marrow cancer specialists in the country. The swelling was gone this morning but has returned, although to a lesser extent. Dr. Tricot asked about any weight gain and I told him that my weight that morning indicated that I had gained about 5 pounds since first seeing him and I had lost 5 pounds overnight, which was attributed to loss of fluids that had been infused into me. But I lost another 5 pounds overnight and now weigh about what I did a week after recovering from my bout with pneumonia.

The current schedule for my contiued treatment as outlined by Dr. Tricot yesterday, calls for the next visit to the hospital coming Wednesday for 2 infusions; one of which is for bone strengthening and the other of purpose unknown to me. The doctor wanted the 2 infusions 2 days apart but the nurses decided they could both be done the same day after which they will be able to disconnect my port for awhile. After that I don't go back again until the 31st when they will perform the same battery of tests on me that they ran before accepting me as a transplant patient. Then I meet Dr. Tricot on the 2nd or 3rd of September and they begin 4 days of intensive chemo on September 4 and will transplant my stem cells on September 8. I will then be neutropenic again and will need to be within 10-15 minutes of the hospital until engraftment when my immune system will be restored.

Everybody assures me that the intense chemo will be hard to take and I am going to be sicker than I have been thus far. I am mentally prepared for it and ready to get the progaram running.