Day 19

It's 10:45 and I've been in the ATC for about an hour. I'm getting magnesium and phoscarnet. Magnesium is necessary for the bone marrow to function. It's low because the Tacrolimus, the anti rejection drug strips magnesium out. So you take it out and put it back in. Phoscarnet is an anti viral drug. This process will take about 3 hours today.

The T cells, which fight viruses, apparently need a little help at this point, so they keep up the anti viral drugs.

The B cells, which fight infections, are doing okay. So I'm not on any antibiotics. The white count zoomed up today courtesy of the Neupogen shot yesterday. White count was 17.4 today and neutrophils were 16.3. Yesterday the overall white count was 2.4 and the neutrophils were at 1.49. I think it's encouraging that just a single shot had that much effect. The overall white count looked like it might have bottomed out yesterday having come up to 2.4 from 2.3 the previous day. But they gave me Neupogen because the neutrophils dropped below 1.5 (just barely) and I was getting out of the protected environment.

I will come to the ATC (ambulatory treatment center) every day for two weeks after getting my blood drawn. Depending on what the blood work reveals, they will give me various drugs. After 2 weeks they will probably cut me back to 3 times per week.

Ken and I went out to eat yesterday evening at our favorite restaurant in the Rice (University) Village area. We went early to avoid crowds, though. It felt quite odd to go from a clean room protected environment in the morning to being out in public in the afternoon. The docs said it was okay as long I wear a mask, wash my hands a lot, and avoid crowds.

Pete, thanks for the help with the blog. Good luck getting Gary up to speed. LOL

Tech (in retro uniforms) plays UVA on ESPN Thursday night.