Well, tomorrow will be exactly a month since I’ve been home. So, why haven’t I been writing, you might be wondering. After all, I wrote pretty often while I was sick! Sick! Sick! I will tell you that I have been sleeping A LOT since I’ve been home. I mean, I could probably rival my brand, new great niece in the sleep department and she was just born on June 29.
That being said, the day of the stem cell transplant is known as your ‘birthday.’ If that’s the case, then I guess that I’m just 2 weeks older than the great niece! Since I’m dangerously close to 50, I’ll take the June 15, 2022 birthday. On a side note, with the world coming to a virtual halt for two years, it seems to me that most of us probably weren’t celebrating birthdays anyway, so it’s only fair that none of us aged for those two years. In which case, I’ll hold at 48 for a while.
Now, back to getting home and the last month. We left around 5am to get to Mexico City and catch a flight at 10am. I won’t go into too much detail but will say that Ana was a lifesaver again! She rode with us in the van as she was on her way to visit a friend in Mexico City before heading to the UK for a three year stint as a nurse! She came into the airport with us and acted as a translator. She is just the greatest!
A dear friend of mine has worked in the airline industry for many years. She told me that I absolutely must get a wheelchair in Denver as the walk from international flights to customs is really long and there is no way that I can do it! Boy, was she right! By the time we got off of the plane I was running a low grade fever (not COVID, so quit freaking out! I just did four rounds of chemo and had a stem cell transplant. I wasn’t my best self!). I can honestly say that I have never been so thankful for a wheelchair, EVER! Again, we sped right through everything and headed to my mom’s with a ride from another dear friend. When we got to my mom’s she had welcome signs. We were there to pick up my aunt who recently retired as a nurse practitioner. She was coming to stay with us for a bit, in case I had any problems. I will tell you that when I saw my mom, I just cried! I was very glad to see her and very glad to be about 45 minutes from home. From here, we said good-bye to our friend that drove us from Denver and we headed home with my mom and aunt. Home is great! The cats are great! Our bed is great!
I ran a low grade fever on an off for the first week. I think that it was just everything that had been going on! We kept a close eye on it and it ended up not going into a scary zone. I had my first bloodwork on July 5. My white blood cells had dropped to 3,600. Not horrid. I am, however, anemic now. This won’t be a forever thing and I am taking an iron supplement. I had more bloodwork on July 18, and while still anemic, the white blood cells were up to 4,200. I’ll continue to have bloodwork done weekly for the next ten weeks.
I pretty much slept all day every day for the first two weeks. Once I took a shower, all bets were off! I was down! The little bit that I was awake, I spent time walking to the end of the driveway and worked up to walking around the house and finally was able to walk to the end of the street and up the alley, so I guess that could be considered a half block? By week three, I was trying to do some things around the house and do a little bit of catch up on some work. Turns out that I have about 2-4 good hours a day. I went past those limits last week and ended up sleeping all day on Thursday and again on Sunday. On Saturday I walked around the entire block two separate times! This might explain why I slept most of yesterday. Some of you might be thinking ‘a block, big deal! It’s just a block.’ You are correct, so I need to qualify why this is such a big deal for me. Before we left for MX, I couldn’t even make it to the next door neighbor’s house with my trekking poles. I would have to turn around at the neighbor’s because my balance was way off and I could hardly pick my feet up. I am now going all the way around the block with no balance issues and no trekking poles! This is huge! I start back with PT at the end of September. I started back with the MS Gym today. I am also able to walk up stairs like ‘normal.’ Meaning, I can balance on one leg and move to the second step with my other leg. I haven’t been able to do that for years!
So, all in all, I can’t complain. Complaining wouldn’t do me any good anyway! I’m getting stronger every day. My mind is fairly clear. I’m fortunate enough to be able to actually stay home and heal. I hope to get back to my bookkeeping job next week. That is typically only one day a week for about four hours. I feel pretty positive that I can do it! I still highly recommend the treatment and Clinica Ruiz. I plan to add to this website and include a packing list and a section on tipping.
TL;DR – I’m getting my energy back slowly. I’m glad to be home. I am walking without assistive devices!
You will forever be my hero and a total Goddess and Warrior. So good to have you back and wonderful to see you having successes everyday!