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Hi there Folks,

     Back home after  a 1 day/2 nights weekend getaway at the Duke Adult Bone Marrow Penthouse in Durham. Blood Tests, a transfusion and some IV Magnesium, and I was pronounced good to go by the presiding Duke and Duchess.

     We did the right thing by going to the Emergency Room on Thursday night, and if I have another episode of a high fever and chills, I will do it again. We had my abandon ship bag packed ( two pr Scrubs, First aid kit, benadryl and tylenol, disposable underwear and gauze pads, two Buffs, wool socks, two long sleeve shirts, a towel and a copy of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy)  and only had to grab the tackle box with the meds, and my dopp kit, Kindle, ipod, and Medical Records loose leaf,  and we were out the door.  It was a good drill, made it to CGH in about 14 minutes without using the flashers or exceeding the speed limit.

    The nursing staff at Carteret General, both in the ER, and when we were in a room on the new 4th floor was absolutely wonderful - professional and caring,   I must mention Erin, who was most helpful even though she was training two new nurses and had her hands full with other patients.  And even though I had only been inpatient at Duke for 6 days back in April, (right after the transplant when I really tanked and was not very lucid) there were several of the same nurses on duty and we had a good reunion.

     We learned a lot about hospital procedures, and the ride in the transport ambulance  left me wanting one for a camper conversion project. The trip to Duke actually took the same amount of time as the GPS lady that lives in Anne's dashboard says it should. 3hrs 10 min. Of course the GPS cyborg lady does not have to stop and pee, and we rarely made the trip in under 3 hrs 45 min.

     We hope this was just a hiccup in my recovery. It was really freaky the way all my numbers - Whites, Reds, and Platelets - dropped so precipitously from what they had been only 12 hrs earlier.  In the wake of what  must have been some kind of food poisoning they had plummeted, and I lost a lot of ground.  Current thinking is that  the tremors, high fever and nausea produced a Cascade of  Cytokenes, and the chaos caused by a bunch of cytokenes shouting orders to my new baby immune system and the dwindling numbers of my original B predators caused some hematological  cannibalism to occur, which I was able to slow with an antihistamine, and once the fever subsided things started to settle down.

     Some good lessons were learned, not just about packing our own food for a while longer. And I have a bunch more materiel for an upcoming post entitled:

"How to Survive a Hopsital Visit" or "Tips for Staying Alive in Hospital".


Cheers,

Chris