The List

Day #23 – My platelets jumped to 94 (normal begins at 140 and goes to 440). My white blood cells have elevated to .5 but need to go up to at least 5. I’m hoping for a bigger jump for tomorrow. The new TV’s still don’t work in our new rooms so reading and surfing the internet will take up my time and talking on the phone. I don’t know how I would get along without the phone.

I thought you might like to see FYI a list of things I HAVE NOT DONE in almost 30 days:

• Taken a shower (yep, there are germs in pipes and in standing water, so no showering - sponge baths every day. I'm going to need a full body exfoliation when I get out of here!)
• Used a toilet (the worst! many germs are released when you flush so we go on pots with bags that are then examined and weighed - eeeeewwwwwwwww!)
• Worn a stitch of underwear! Nothing more to be said here.
• Shared a meal with another person (while I can have visitors they cannot remove their masks in the room and therefore cannot eat in my room)
• Used any sharp objects like a razor or toenail clippers (with platelets so low even a small cut or bleed could be disastrous)
• Walked more than 8 steps before having to turn around (in this 10 x 10 foot room with furniture it is hard to get your heart rate up even with pulling your IV pole.) I do have a little bike simulator that I sit in a chair and peddle several times a day.
• Gone to bed without side rails up and bed alarm on! (Even if I sit up to get a drink of water the alarm goes off and the nurse comes running in to make sure I'm OK. Again a fall or bleed could be devastating.) We laugh about it now.
• Stepped one foot outside these four walls. One day my daughter held the door open when she was leaving so that I could look out to the nurses station. We felt like we were misbehaving