T+14 (I’m Back!)

The contents of this blog post include explicit descriptions of the various transplant side effects I am experiencing. I worried about straying into TMI (too much information) territory but decided, in the end. to continue to be as open and transparent about my journey as possible. Proceed with caution.

I woke up this morning feeling “human” for the first time in three days. I had a shower and, since the COVID lockdown has been lifted, took a walk around 5 West. It felt good to stretch my legs after more than a week of lockdown.

So, what transpired in the previous three days? It started several hours after my last post. That day I had received my last dose of post transplant chemotherapy (Methotrexate). Afternoon vitals revealed an elevated body temperature. Throughout the evening my body temperature continued to rise, finally spiking at 39.5C.

Fever broke very early the next morning. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of my discomfort. Several hours later diarrhea started. The acidity of the diarrhea further irritated my already inflamed hemorrhoids making each bowel movement excruciatingly painful.

Once I finished voiding my bowels, T+12 was a quiet day. I slept on and off the entire day.

Diarrhea returned on T+13. Since the diarrhea consisted of multiple movements, I got to experience a burning pain over and over again for nearly an hour. Oh, did I mention that I had to get a stool sample during this bout of diarrhea? (and yes, it is about a pleasant a task as it sounds). Seems that the type treatment depended on whether I had contracted C.difficile.

Fortunately, I had not contracted C.difficile and was put on Imodium. I have not had a movement since then. Not sure if that means that diarrhea has been treated or I have just been granted a temporary reprieve. My fingers are crossed.

I know that last this post and the previous post contained considerable “poop talk” (a term coined by one of my kids). This focus is representative of how I felt during that period and the nature of the conversations with medical team. My whole world became about finding ways to mitigate the pain and “curing” the diarrhea.

While I have spent considerable “ink” on this topic, I want to be clear that at no point in the past few days did I feel sorry myself. Before agreeing to the second transplant, I made peace with the fact that I will experience a variety of side effects that, at the very least, are uncomfortable and, in many cases, painful.

Thanks for listening,

Mike