The next 3 months

Right. As I’ve now got a donor for my stem cell transplant, I’m facing the prospect of spending the next 3 months at home, only going to the hospital once a week to get my lines cleared. That’s right, no more long hospital stays, no more long chemotherapy, no more hospital food, no more hospital routine. At least until I check in for the transplant. 🙂 The consultant may recommend a few mild outpatient chemotherapy sessions (as an outpatient) just to make sure the Leukemia is in remission but that’s about it. 

It’s weird, as I’ve never been able to plan anything more than a few weeks in advance cos I’ve always had to go into the hospital for the next course of treatments. This time, however, there’s more time and there’re loads of things to do. Plus I will mainly be at home for the third trimester. And that’s good! 

Peanut preparation

It goes without saying that this will take up the bulk of my time (and the wife’s time) over the next 3 months. There’s the nursery to prepare, large items to purchase, furniture to assemble, cleaning to do, bits of knick knacks to buy, classes to attend and loads of other small things to do.

I’ve also got to learn to cook and prepare some pre- and post-delivery foods for the wife. Vinegar Pork Trotters and ginger fried rice anyone? Being absolutely clueless about these things, I’ve had to rely on the internet for recipes and tips and tricks so any recipes and tips would be greatly appreciated. 

Transplant preparation

Transplant preparation actually start a few weeks before the actual admission. Apparently there are loads of checks and tests to do to the patient before they can actually recommend and proceed with the transplant. In the words o the consultant, “it’s a scary disease, it’s a scary procedure, we talk to you to scare you, and we scare even more by doing all sorts of things to you.”

There’re also loads of forms to fill, counseling sessions to sit through, procedure sessions to go through, just to make sure you know what you’re going to go through. Sounds very very big time, but then again, it’s a very risky procedure. So it’s probably worthwhile staying awake at least through some of it. 

Visits

We’ve got a couple of people coming over to visit us too. The wife’s brother and his wife will be coming over in the next couple of weeks. The wife’s childhood friend will also be coming over, with her husband and their baby for a quick visit. The wife’s taken a couple of weeks off for that, and it will be quite an adventure. 🙂 It’s great that I’ll be home and relatively OK during that period so we can all hang out and do stuff together. 

Food

In addition to the food that I have to learn to make for the wife’s pregnancy, I’ll need to beef up for the transplant. The admission period for the transplant will be about 6 weeks, and for 2 weeks of that, I’ll be very weak and be in a semi-conscious state. So all the nutrients I need will be given through the Hickman line. So I will lose quite a bit of weight during that time. The best thing to do will be to eat and bulk up as much as I can before heading in, and to keep fit and healthy by walking more, doing some light exercises and just not sitting/lying around too much.

Work

The plan is to work a little more during the 3 months I’ll be at home. I may even go into the office 1 or 2 days a week. I guess they’ve been waiting for me to get into the office for meetings and planning sessions but it hasn’t been able to happen yet so I’ll try to make this happen this time round. This may sound strange, but I do miss getting into the office every day.