Day + 6

There have been a couple of interesting developments yesterday and today that I have no idea how to interpret but I thought I'd pass them along.  For the past few years as my MS has progressed my ability to feel certain stimuli has changed.  In some areas of my body I have hypersensitivity and in other areas I have all but lost sensation.  For example, you know when you get an itch on your back and you tell someone e.g. spouse, neighbor, mailman hey scratch my back!  It starts in one area and then you say left, left, up, down, there Ahhhhh!  That has not happened to me for a few years because touching my skin causes irritation and pain in most cases.  Yesterday afternoon I had an itch on my back and I asked Bea to scratch it.  I felt the itch spread first left then right, up then down!  It was like electric rice krispies popping all around my back.  I could literally feel electricity reaching locations on my "grid" that had been shut down.  Bea scratched and scratched all over my back and it was the most amazingly satisfying feeling. 

The second development happened during my shower as I was sitting in the chair to wash my feet.  Normally touching my hypersensitive left foot causes uncontrollable spasms in my foot and leg from the stimulation.  It's sort of like when you scratch a dog on their back and their leg starts shaking. Well today I scrubbed my foot and there were no spasms!  I wonder if I'll still chase the newspaper boy on his bike??

Lastly, after my shower today I was applying copious amounts of face cream on my bald bean and face.  All of the chemicals have really dried me out.  I noticed I could actually feel a slight coolness from the cream in the jar.  For the past year or more I had lost heat/cool sensation in most of my fingers.

Is it possible that within one week of chemotherapy treatment that destroyed the roaming autoreactive T and some B cell lymphocytes that were literally hunting and killing live healthy tissue my oligodendrocytes have created some new myelin and actually reparired a small amount of damaged axons to allow for normal electrical conductivity?  Certainly a bit early for this conclusion but cool stuff nonetheless.  I can just imagine Dr. Burt's face after presenting my scientific theory for this one...

I'm sitting in my chair hooked up to the IV pole receiving a big 'ol bag of platelets.  We're trying to avoid another fever spike like last night and this morning.  About 3:00 AM today my fever spiked and my head was pounding.  Unfortunately it didn't subside until about 3:00 this afternoon despite great efforts of the nursing team to do all they could to make me feel beter.   It was honestly the most difficult 12 hours of my admission so far.  The NP Amy came in this morning to look at the numbers but primarily to give me a pep talk and tell me to hang in there (as if there were another option??). They all care so much but sometimes you just have to ride it out. 

It's very interesting that the most difficult part of this process to determine is if/when your body develops fever due to the suppressed immunity.  Modern science has come a long way to prevent or at least minimize the side effects of the actual chemotherapy agents but the problems start if your body develops fever.  Dr. Burt was hesitant to give me more IV steroids because they can actually cause different complications but because the fever was so persistent and causing so much discomfort he relented (Come on man just give me one more I swear I'll stop I swear!).   In addition to the steroids I'm hooked up to the IV pole basically 24 hrs. a day again for fluids and the antibiotics to keep me hydrated after all of these fevers.  I have lost 9 lbs. since I arrived mostly in water weight so I've got some eating to do!

Bea left about an hour ago to stay in the apartment tonight. We had a rough night and morning and  she didn't get much sleep either.  Hopefully we're on an upswing that will last until my white blood cell numbers start coming up in the next few days.  At that time the fevers should stop and I can begin a proper recovery from HSCT. 

Before Bea left we went for a long walk down by the water and took this picture of the boats on Lake Michigan.  Ok, Bea went for a walk and I waited for her in the bed Zzzzzz.