Hello my healing team.
As always, I hope this update finds you well!!
It feels that not a lot has happened over the past week. I have been living Groundhog Day, each day waking up expecting to find myself with tire marks on my chest after having been hit by ‘The Truck’. I don’t want to celebrate too soon, but I think I may have dodged ‘The Truck’ as I am yet to have any of the nastier symptoms including nausea, diarrhoea, contracted any infections or had general body/bone pain!! Frikkin awesome!! I am actually feeling quite well with my only challenges being fatigue and loss of appetite.
The return of stem cells on Day 0 went off without a hitch. Apparently they preserve my stem cells in a solution that smells like urine after eating asparagus. So for the following few days I stunk like the wee wee asparagus man. Yay. Today is Day 10. On Day 8, I was very pleased to report that I hit zero!! That is to say that I no longer have any white blood cells (WBC) cruising their way around my body fighting infections. Whilst it may sound a little alarming, it is actually the number that I have been hoping to hit for several days now. It means that the chemo drug Melphalan successfully removed all bone marrow, and has hopefully nailed most of the cancer cells! From here I expect to stay at zero WBC for several more days while my newly transplanted stem cells embed themselves in my bones and restore my bone marrow (bless their cotton socks).
So for me now, Groundhog Day has me waiting for my ‘numbers’ to pick up. I need my WBC count to go over 1.0 before they will allow me to go home. My biggest concern now is avoiding infections and illnesses while I have no immunity. So for all of you out there that who had cleared their calendars and were planning to visit me, please make sure you have no lurgies!
Over the past 12 days, Sarah has been working to keep the kids in their routine and happy, and she has driven to Melbourne every day to keep me occupied. She really is awesome. A lot of people are providing much needed support to Sarah and I by visiting, calling, providing cooked meals, babysitting etc. Both Sarah and I are very thankful for all you have given. Thank you.
To update you on our fundraising for the Leukaemia Foundation, we are close to raising $25k (not all is shown on the LF website http://my.leukaemiafoundation.org.au/geoffnyssen ). Thank you so much for your generous donations and support. We are still collecting donations, we had a raffle for diamond earrings that were donated (won by Kristy Lewis) and we are now holding a raffle for a Jimmy Choo clutch worth over $1,000 that was also generously donated. Tickets $50 – please contact me for more details.
I have attached a few photos. I particularly like the picture drawn in my room by my daughter Georgia. Also, there is o photo of me getting my stem cells back (red liquid in drip).
Until my next update,
Take care
Geoff
