Day +5

Today is the 5th day since the transplant, and is counted as day +5 in the new way that I'm counting time. There will be milestones, and eventually, a year from now, days will return to a normal count, as they did the last time.

In the meanwhile, I am trying to make the best of the hospital stay; enjoying time with friends and family when I'm awake, sleeping a seemingly impossible amount of the time, and maximizing my access to the amazing medical professionals who are helping to ensure that this time goes smoothly as it can.

The past few days I have felt incredibly tired as my red and white blood counts and platelets all drop down into the realm of being neutropenic, mandating even more stringent safety precautions to avoid infection.

It's a re-building period, one which I hope will begin to look-up soon. A lot of the day-to-day of this experience parallels the last time around, documented here on the blog as well. Though this transplant is different by definition of having received cells from a donor, the short-term process (the next month or so) is very similar. Beyond then, I still have a lot of learning to do!