T+131 (It’s Been A While)

I am back in hospital and have been here for just over three weeks. Why? Graft vs. Host Disease (GVHD) reared its ugly just after T+100. I encourage you to take a few minutes to read a previous blog post that explains GVHD in more detail.

As I mentioned in the blog post, acute GVHD seems to favour three organs: skin, gastrointestinal (GI) track, and liver. In my case, up to day 100, I had very, very mild skin GVHD. Just after T+100, I felt like someone threw a switch and, within a week, was dealing both skin and GI GVHD.

The skin GVHD was easily treated with steroids. The GI GVHD, on the other hand, is more challenging to treat. Hospitalization is necessary as constant monitoring and adjustments to medications is required.

In addition to the medications used to treat the GI tract GVHD, dietary limitations are also part of the treatment. Currently, I am allowed clear fluids (broth, clear juices, ginger ale) and plain starches (rice, mashed potatoes, past). Oh, I can also have apple sauce.

I’m working on a more blog post with more details, including a description of the plan to get me back home.

Thanks for listening,

Mike