It's Carissa this time. Thanks Celeste for your posts on Tuesday :)

Costa came in this morning and they pulled the NG tube out. That was a relief. I feel a lot better just from that hose removed. The NG is MUCH bigger than the NJ so it's even more annoying. He said I could have ice chips (I had asked last night if I could have SOMETHING because I was feeling sick from not eating and not getting tube feeds...weird how that is), told me to walk, blah blah.

Then Kareem came in later and he always changes everything around. He walked in and said "Why are you on so many antibiotics???!!! Are we trying to make you sick?" To which I responded..."I think so!" Then he saw my j-tube connected to a drainage bag and said "Why are you hooked up to that???" I'm like "Kareem, I don't know! I didn't do it!" He said "stop the antibiotics, stop the fluids, disconnect that j-tube from drainage, You're not two days post-transplant!" My response was, "that's fine with me!" He was upset that Costa had me on so much stuff. That's typical. Kareem is more aggressive, Costa is a lot more cautious, and Kareem is the boss so what he says is final!

I'm happy because these IV drugs make me feel horrible. The less I have to take, the better I feel and the less things I'm connected to, the more human I feel too! I'm still getting vancomycin 2x/day with IV benadryl and tylenol because I've been running a low grade fever all day and they want to knock any potential infections out before they really get started. They weren't able to find a spot for a central line in my neck, so they stuck it in my femoral. That's a scary spot because it's really unclean, not to mention a pain to access! The sooner they can pull it out the safer I will feel. Yeah, kind of running out of "real estate" as my nurse said when he saw that they had also stuck an IV line in my foot on Tuesday. They couldn't find a vein anywhere else. Never a fun experience. When they infiltrate, it feels like a sprained foot. Thankfully, this one was pulled out before I even woke up.

Today I got two runs of potassium, one of magnesium, one of calcium, and a unit of blood. They are starting me back on weekly Arinesp injections (helps body produce red blood cells) because my counts have been running low again. Hopefully that will help my energy levels.

Anywho...the fluids are still running at a fairly slow rate because I had some really bad nausea this afternoon after they pulled the NG and it wasn't suctioning the junk out of my gut anymore. My nurse said it's up to me if we keep the fluids going, but I haven't been drinking much at all. With no tube feeds, I think it's too early to stop them. They were going to start tube feeds tonight at a rate of 5cc's/hour, but they decided to wait until tomorrow morning to give my gut more time to wake up from the anesthesia. They said I could hook the j-tube back up to drain, but I didn't want to do that unless the nausea didn't ease up enough after a dose of phenergan. I feel better than this afternoon and tons better than yesterday. Hopefully tomorrow I'll start grazing again like I do and they can start the tube feeds up. They are going to use the same formula I have been using at home since they know I tolerate it ok. I am taking most meds orally now with the exception of phenergan (nausea), my cortef (steroids), and dilaudid (pain).

Overall, I'm doing well. I'm getting around on my own most of the time. I kind of freak my nurses out sometimes because I do things they think they should be helping me with. I just like to get things done and they are too slow getting here when I call!

Costa said biopsy results of my lymph node should be back early next week. Other than that, not much to report. Just trying to get things straightened out.

Oh, this is funny...Dr. Costa said they were really impressed with the placement of the NJ tube I came in with. He asked who did it, and I said Hershey Med. Then I realized that, yeah, Hershey got it down my nose, but they didn't get it in far enough because the next day I woke up coughing and with stuff in my throat and chest. So, instead of going back to the ER, I pushed it in the rest of the way myself...HA! I seriously should be a doctor...to impress these guys with any medical procedure says something! They ARE the best!