Day +14

Well its more of the same boring stuff going on in the hospital. No procedures or transfusions today, but mostly just waiting around to get better. The rounds with the doctors in the morning are pretty predictable at this point. I'm making progress and am doing as well as expected. I'm very happy that I haven't had any signs of Graft Versus Host Disease so far.

Well a year ago at this time I was checking myself into the same ward I am on now at NIH. I had a neutropenic fever and had to spend 4 nights in the hospital. Its a bit depressing to be in the same place, dealing with the same disease as I was a year ago. Its an annoying reminder of how long I've had to deal with cancer, and my journey isn't over yet.

New Year's Resolutions are usually things that you can control, so resolving to be cancer free wouldn't make sense. However, I will be praying tonight that 2009 will bring about the end of my struggles with this disease. I will be very happy to celebrate New Year's Eve next year with a clean bill of health.

I was anticipating that I might be home tonight as the best case scenario, since this is Day +14, and thats the earliest the protocol mentioned people would be released. I was also excited because several of the nurses yesterday mentioned that I would be heading home on Friday. However, I asked the attending physician today if there was a set day for discharge, and he said there was not. So Friday might not be my day to return home. There will be a new attending physician tommorow, so I wonder if this new doctor will have a different time frame for my release. Like I've said about dealing with cancer before, once you think you know whats going on, you get shown you are wrong. So I'm not sure when I'll be discharged, but I'm praying its soon.

I hope everybody is having a positive New Year's celebration, and that 2009 turns out to be a great year for all of us. Thanks again to everybody who is offering their prayers and support.