Brain was sapped I guess
That chemo really did a number on his brain. It’s resolving some, since the chemo stopped last night, but once he starts acting “normal” (well, for him) I’ve realized how off he was. Yesterday, I was getting nervous cause he was reminding me, when all grogged up, of my brother who had a traumatic brain injury from a car accident. For those who knew Mark, he was talking like him a bit, really slowly, and moving so slow. I had to translate what he was saying to the nurses.
Today he was a different man. Not 100%, by any stretch. But if we say yesterday was his “worst” day and say that he was about 20% on the Brendan scale, today he was around 75%. He got another shower with a lot of help, he trimmed his beard (OMG, so needed it, even if his hair does fall out at some point), and before I got there he did one or two laps of the ward. While I was there, we walked to the day room, walked back to the bed, he showered, then back to the day room again. This is a lot of energy for someone who couldn’t really stand up on his own yesterday. He did have a 3 minute catnap after our two hands of gin rummy, and from that he was energized enough to get through me chattering on about whatever. 😀
He’s still having the fevers, last night was up to 39.8C. But there were only maybe 3 spikes, where last week we were looking at at least double that per day.
His numbers today are:
WBC 0.3
Hg 8.9
Platelets 51!!!!
Hopefully platelets will stay high, tho they’ll probably be a lot less. Bloods are taken in the morning, and he had a lot yesterday for his scope. Since then no platelets or transfusions, so we’re expecting his numbers to start to go down a little, until his bone marrow starts to make new baby blood cells. The key is which blood cells he makes, and that will tell us if he’s in remission. Until then, it’s a waiting game. I forsee a lot of gin rummy, but am hoping that I can dress me and the boys in masks and bring them in for a visit.
For now, I’m checking out. Starting to get a tickle in my throat, which means I’m coming down with something, so gonna go slurp on hot lemon and honey and deny a cold!
Today’s shoutouts: Liz, for listening; Anne for the laughs; Kamilla and Greg for the lifts for P; Aunt Mary for being with the boys; and B….for being B.
