Day 27 - An Evil Horse

Amazing what a little extra sleep can do to a person. All my life I've never been a morning person, but for one month I gave up my late nights and woke up at the crack of dawn to take giant pills on an empty stomach and walk (or more recently been wheeled over) across the street to my daily 8:30am appointments. This made me not only very cranky but extremely tired. Fatigue was already killing me and to have to force my body to do something it was not ready to do was absolute torture.

Thankfully it all came to an end when my mom took over as caregiver this past week. Since there was no more turnover of caregivers during my appointment time, I was able to put off my appointment until around noon...and thank God I did. I've never felt so much more awake and energized!! It was so bad that I actually shocked my nurse practitioner when I walked in the other day with a smile (first one she's seen since transplant day). Despite my body still feeling quite fatigued, I felt like I could take on anything.

I also started to see my blood counts slowly but surely begin to climb, which is a very good indicator that the transplant has taken and grafting has begun. My sister's cells have begun attaching themselves to my bone marrow and have started setting up shop to create more cells to take over as the dominant immune system and kill the cancer. Since this happened I've stopped needing the daily shots, stopped taking some pills, but started adding many more...fun.

I also had the worst ever pain to hit me at 4am a few mornings ago. I remember turning over in my sleep and then BAM!

I woke up to the most god awful pain twisting in my lower leg. Strained in agony, my mom came over to try to smooth out the cramp that was burning. It suddenly dawned on me...I was experiencing my first ever Charley Horse. I had been fortunate to go through my life without experiencing this pain, but due to certain medications I'm on and the fact that my potassium levels were a slight bit higher than usual and magnesium levels a bit low (also thanks to my meds...), I was susceptible to the agony of this crushing moment. Thankfully the pain subsided quickly and the soreness went away after a couple days...still...that was THE WORST.

I've also acquired new, more interesting side effects such as tingling sensations in my fingertips when touching cold or warm objects. It's the weirdest feeling, but neuropathy is quite common with the recent chemo that I was on. I've been told it will go away on its own in the next couple months...so I guess I have to get used to that.

Finally, I got the best news when I went to my appointment today...I'M GETTING DAYS OFF!!!!

Since my counts are now on the rise, I will be getting Wednesdays off!! You know what that means?!? MORE SLEEP!!!!!

But in all seriousness, this is a major improvement and one I'm definitely going to highlight as a stepping stone to recovery. I'm hoping that when all this is over that I can go back to school (hopefully by the end of the summer) and possibly visit my grandmother and recuperate by the beach for a little while. It seems to be calling my name and the ocean has always been the best place for me to heal both physically and mentally. One day...one day I'll get there. It's only a matter of time.