My rules for living

So I made it. The long 21 day journey is over. I had many bumps, bruises, rashes, sores, and other nasty things happen to me during my stay at the Brig. I found out earlier today that the nurses were worried about me last week because apparently the reactions I had during the SCT were some of the most severe they had seen, and I was doing much worse than the other transplant patients. I guess there was one benefit to staying in a room by myself where I can't see how the others were faring. I spared many of the nasty details from everyone in my posts because I can't even start to think about them without getting a little nauseated. Lucky for me I have drugs for that, you all don't, so I left out the details of the events that only Ti, myself and my nurses were fortunate enough to witness. If anyone is really, really interested, you can ask me later.

Anyway, here is my list of restrictions. Some are only for 30 days, some are until the doctor tells me otherwise, based on my blood counts. Some of the restrictions I have are for a year or more (like no soft serve ice cream).

1. No sick people - this is more of a long term thing until my body is back to fighting strength. What this means is if someone wants to come visit me and they're fighting a virus, I can't let you into the condo. I also can't take public transportation or go into stores or anywhere there may be sick folks. So I pretty much can only be at home, outside in the fresh air, in the car, and at the clinic. It's funny how they make me go to a place full of sick people for follow-ups.

Ironically, I caught a cold in the hospital a few days before they let me go home.

2. Only food prepared at home or pre-processed foods. Sorry folks, you can't bring me things you made at home to eat. Or a bucket of chicken (sorry Mike). This limitation is only for 30 days or so, if things go as planned. Ti has been given a list of food-prep instructions and we have a list of things I can/can't eat. If food has been left out for 30 mins after being cooked I can't eat it. :(
Strangely enough, if someone wants to stop by with an economy sized box of Twinkies, I can gorge myself on all of that unnatural goodness. I can't eat fresh fruits or vegetables, with a few exceptions, but not many. Twinkies 1, food I should probably be eating 0. This whole cancer thing doesn't make any sense.

3. Rest, try to eat, drink plenty of fluids, and take the 10 pills a day I now have to take. I have to drink 2-3 liters of fluids a day, or risk dehydration and end up back in the hospital. I also have to try to eat. I lost about 20 lbs between the time I checked into the hospital until leaving today. My appetite isn't anywhere near where it was, but I'm trying to at least maintain what weight I still have. Fortunately for me, I went in a few lbs heavy, so I'm not really getting near skeletal. And then there are the pills. But enough about that for tonight. I'm tired.

That's pretty much it for the major rules I have to live by for the next few months. Of course there are lots of little things I have to do (take my temp every few hours, wash my hands frequently - even at home) but I don't want to bore you.

Good night. I'll enjoy sleeping in my own bed.