Day +5

Yesterday, was by far the worst day.  We had tried everything to get me feeling well, nothing seemed to be working (hydration, blood, ice packs all over, anti virals, antibiotics...). The fever kept climbing.  Around 8 last night, my fever spiked to over 103.  I was shivering and crying, the pain was extreme.  Dr. Burt was paged. He called within 2 minutes (that's how awesome he is).  He told the nurse to give me 120 of Solumedrol (a steroid).  Once that started, relief was soon behind and I was able to get my temp down to the 99 range.

On this mornings rounds, Dr. Burt told me that for lots of CIDP patients, the fevers come as the bodies last ditch effort to hold onto the CIDP.  The CIDP is gone, (happy dance), but the rest of my body is still figuring that out.  To prevent anymore possibilities of fever, I'll be given Solumedrol tonight and tomorrow night.

He also told me the blood cultures they've been taking, almost every day, have all come back negative.  So I have no sign of infection anywhere.

My goals for today were simple: eat, shower and walk.  Being bed ridden for the past several days, I was antsy to get up and use my "new" legs.  So I met with some of my HSCT sisters in the hall.

Yesterday, we also started the neupogen shots (these are the same shots I had during mobilization that got my stem cells from my bone marrow to my blood).  These shots do cause some pretty severe bone pain.  These shots are given to help my white blood cell counts to come back faster.  Science is AMAZING!!!

Thank you everyone for the prayers last night.  It was scary and not at the same time.  Jesse wasn't worried, so that helped me stay calm.  

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Today was a great day!  Childhood friends (who are life long friends) drove 3 hours to visit with us.  A friendship that I love where we can pick up right where we left off every time.  So we chatted and caught each other up on our lives.

Another pleasantry of the day, a gift from one of my HSCT, CIDP mentors Stacey.  Thank you so much!!!

We are in our final week here in Chicago. Our flights home are booked for next Monday.  We are down to 7 days, 7 DAYS, until we hold our boys again!  We are in the home stretch.  

I'm feeling good, tired, but it's a good tired instead of the constant fatigue I experienced with CIDP.  

The Benadryl still makes me sleep. 

I'm continuously thankful that I was given this opportunity to be well.  To get my life back!