Day 15: Marrow responding right on cue!

Well what a relief that is! I tell ya, you could set your watch by it. Platelets are 71 and the WBC has doubled to 1.2 overnight. The platelet transfusion yesterday should have only raised the count by 40, so there is strong indication that I'm making my own again. The doctors were very surprised as they were talking about giving me another transfusion today and expected the count to be around 40 for the platelets.

Tonight I have the last of my Dendritic Cell Vaccine shots, and a shot of Interferon. Before that I'll have another blood test. I'd expect to see the WBC in the 2's by then.
All going well I'll be free to leave tomorrow.

I can't believe how long its been! By the time I return to NZ it would have been almost two months. That's a long time to spend away, most of it in spent shut in a small room.
Although Sarah did make it over here for two weeks, and we did get out a little, it doesn't really compare to quality time spent together back home in each others company. For the first week she was here I was still in treatment. Finally I can start thinking about the finer things in life again.. Good company, good food, maybe a tiny amount of good wine.

Just driving a car again will be an experience. Sarah tells me the battery has gone flat on my Impreza, she's going to bring it to the airport so I can drive home.
Then there's all the up-coming local motorsport events.. heck! How am I going to handle going from walking everywhere for the last couple of months to getting back behind the wheel of a 550hp race car? will be interesting if not slightly scary for the first time.
Sarah and I have both agreed that we will be limiting the motorsport to only local events for the foreseeable future so we can focus on building our new house. That's another thing I've mentally put on hold for quite some time.

OK.. Can you tell I'm firing myself up to leave? Must be getting exited. I'll try and temper it until tonight's counts are in.

5:42pm I've just had another blood test and my white cell count has doubled again to 2.4 in the last 6 1/2 hours. Platelets have dropped slightly to 66, that's to be expected.

My stomach is a patch-work of small yellow bruises and red spots from the many injections I've had there. I just got another three. Two of them were the vaccine, man they were big needles! I'm used to the tiny ones that the GCSF comes in. I used to do those myself, but these were big suckers! Yuk!
I also got a shot of interferon, which I'm told acts in way as to allow the vaccine to work better and improve efficacy. I'm expecting a slight fever, body aches etc overnight from the vaccine.

The plan now is to get up early tomorrow (Monday morning) and go down to the nurses station for another blood test. Based on those readings Dr D will decide if we need to administer either of the growth factors to increase counts for the trip home.

So unless something totally out of character happens overnight I'm flying home tomorrow evening!

6:42pm, Man that vaccine has got a kick! I've started shaking uncontrollably with chills. No matter what I do I can't get warm. The fever has arrived with a punch. I've taken the paracetamol the Dr D gave me. So far no improvement one hour later. Another interesting side effect was the feeling of having a cold. My nose started to run and I developed a cough from the gunk running down the back of my throat. Then just as I was convinced I had a major problem. It disappeared. What's with that!?
My lower back is aching, it feels similar to my 'pulsing back ache' B-symptom I get when my disease is active. However there is a 'sweet spot' where I can lay with no pain, so it's not the same. Phew!

My dinner has been delivered, it took me ten minutes to drag myself from my bed. It doesn't look that great anyway.. so I'll probably pass on the main. I'd better mention lunch. probably one of the best meals I've had since arriving. Roast duck on spaghetti noodles with a fresh tomato sauce. Isn't that just typical. Yeah..I've decided to scrap dinner.. not in the mood for the salty chicken and pasta.

Gosh it doesn't pay to be honest around her! Biljana just popped in to see if I was OK. So I mentioned about the chills. She checked my temperature and It's 38.3 (again) so yeah it's a fever. But I already knew that! and that is why Dr D gave me the paracetamol in the first place.
Now they have decided to hook me back up to some IV's again.. sigh. I just want to go to sleep, sweat it out and wake up tomorrow raring to go!

8:55pm: Temperature is now down to 37.6 and I'm feeling a lot better. So I'm hitting the hay.
Last day tomorrow! Woo hoo!