Day 17 - Cells are growing!

We are on day 17 of our hospital stay. Our sweet friends (& marriage class mentors), Rick & Cheri, recently asked if there is anything they can do to make our lives easier as we live in this little hospital room. 

I couldn't come up with anything so passed the question to Chelsa, to which she replied: "a pet goat."  ...so while it's good that she is thinking long-term, and that would probably be a more environmentally friendly alternative to all of the take-out I've been picking up, I think this may be an indicator that we've been here a little too long. 

The good news is that Chelsa's blood counts have finally begun to rise!

After a stem cell transplant, in which the immune system is destroyed by a chemo drug, then previously frozen stem cells are returned, we wait for signs of "engraftment." Engraftment is when the new blood-forming cells start to grow and make healthy blood stem cells -- a super important milestone in the transplant recovery process. The main indicator / measure of successful engraftment is Neutrophils -- a type of white blood that are important for fighting bacterial infections. An absolute neutrophil count of 500 or more for 3 days in a row is a sign of engraftment.

For the past two weeks, Chelsa has been at 0 neutrophils, 0.3-0.7 white blood cells (4.5-11 is normal), 10-15 platelets (150-450 is normal), etc. so VERY vulnerable to any kind of infection, bacteria, sickness, etc. Thankfully, she has not developed any fevers, infections, etc.! and her counts are starting to rise again. Here is what this week has looked like:

Tuesday:  20 Neutrophils (our first sign of growth!)
Wednesday:  40 Neutrophils
Thursday: 80 Neutrophils

They say that once these cells start growing, they typically do so at a rapid pace. It will be several months before Chelsa has a fully built immune system again, but we are hoping to get above 500 Neutrophils by this weekend so that they can take her off the constant antibiotics and we can go home!

A New Look: HOT BLONDE

*On a side note, a fellow 12th floor cancer warrior recently gave us some pro-tips. One of which is that Chelsa can get a free wig if she would like... so while she is embracing the bald look, she thought, what the heck, might as well check it out. I won't post all of the trial pictures (although they are pretty good and you may want to ask her about it in person). Here's what she landed on... introducing, my new hot-blonde wife!