BMT: Day 13

I had a good, lazy Sunday. I had a relatively long afternoon nap so I missed out on having visitors. I guess I needed to catch up on my sleep as I had not been sleeping well the past several nights because of my blocked upper respiratory passageway.

I had more rice-water today ... a total of 54ml! It was quite a feat, considering the last time my gut had any food was on 3 September! The rice-water also helped to reduce my diarrhea.

My counts are starting to creep up slowly. My transplant doctor said they looked promising. I am starting to feel like maybe the worst is behind me, although the doctors keep reminding me that there can be surprises. She mentioned that the average time taken to engraft for a cord blood transplant is 3-4 weeks (i.e day 21 - day 28). Engraftment is measured by the ANC (absolute neutrophils count) being 0.5 or higher for three consecutive days. I'm hoping I will be faster than average. (It takes many more months to reach the point where I would no longer need blood and platelet transfusions, and the new bone marrow is able to produce all the cells I need).

I had a platelet transfusion today. My platelet level was on the borderline of whether I should be given a transfusion ... I had a bag of platelets which was to expire today so the doctors thought it better not to let it go to waste. I can't agree more. To all my platelet donors, thank you so much for giving me life.

Thanks Aunty Peiqi, for the lovely stickers. I am looking forward to sticking them in your apartment ... heehee (on my books of course)!