Red Blood Count (RBC) = 99(Normal 130-180)
Platelet = 57(Normal 150-50)
White Blood Count (WBC) = 1.8(Normal 4 - 11)
Potassium = 3.8(Normal 3.5 - 5.2)
Magnesium = 0.52(Normal 0.65 - 1.05)
I am well today, but again with magnesium deficiency. Both the red blood and platelet count increase quite significantly. The white blood count is no longer dropping and I believe it will start to pick up tomorrow.
I am actually dischargeable today but because my wife and daughter are having flu, I have to stay in the wad and wait. So "the space shuttle has to remain in orbit due to bad wheather".
I have been staying in this isolated VIP room for 37 (27+9+1) days. Today is day 27 after the infusion of my sister stem cell and I was admitted 9 days before the infusion, thefore we get this formula (27+9+1 = 37), where +1 represents day 0.
You might thought that staying in a isolated wad for such a long time is very boring, but frankly speaking life here is not too boring because I have a lot of thing to do everyday. One of the things that makes me so busy is "swallowing pills". I have to swallow so many pills everyday. The pills are in tablet and capsule form, with different sizes, shapes, colours and smells.
Most of the pills are round or oval in shape which are without corner. So they are easy to be swallowed - no sharp corner that will hurts the throat. Some small pills do have shape with corner such as octagon(8 sided), but because they are small, they can be swallowed too. We should never get large pills which are not round or oval in shape.
Apart from the shape, it is interesting to observe that the pills are of variety of colours- green, pink, chocolate, blue, white... Putting all the pills with different shapes and colours together will definately increase the appetite of the patient. You just imagine you are served with a dish of delicious and colourful mixed vegetable. So the patient will swallows the pills in no time:-)
Next is the smell. The multivitamin and mineral supplement called Supradyn is chocolate in colour and it smells exactly like chocolate. Since I have not eaten chocolate for a very long time, I wish I could just chew it like chocolate before swallowing it. Unfortunately I am instructed to swallow the pill in whole. So there is no way for me to enjoy eating it like chocolate:-( I think the reason of swallowing in whole is to allow the supplement to be released gradually in the stomarch to make it more effective. If we chew it into pieces then the supplement will be released all at once which is not so effective. We also refer this gradual release mechanism as "buffered". One example is "buffered vitamin C".
The Cyclosporin pill which is taken to prevent GVHD has a very interesting smell. It smells like "Petai"(Stink Bean) and coincidently it is also coloured like "Petai" which is green. We normally cook the "Petai" with "Sambal Udang"(Prawn chili paste) to make a dish called "Sambal Udang Petai"( Stink Bean with Prawn Chili Paste). It is a very delicious Malaysian food.
Everytime when I just about to eat the Cyclosporin pill, how I wish someone could bring some "Sambal Udang" to me so that I can add the Cyclosporin into it to make a dish called "Sambal Udang Cyclosporin"(Cyclosporin with Prawn Chili Paste) for me to enjoy in the wad:-) If you have no idea of how the dish would look like, see the picture below.
4 comments:
Hi sir,
Good to see your condition now, i really love that "Petai with Sambal Udang" picture and i miss that dish too!!
Vincent
Hi David,
Moh li kiong (cousin) and David yoong
We have read and fellow your report daily now since we drop by to see you in Kl hospital,We pray that you will be back to normal soon.Daily at 2000hrs my wife will ask me to open the blogger for her to see your report.when he see your report had improve she is very happy.Cousin I share with you some verse Bible PSALM 121:1-8 for you to read.Hope you like it
Dear David,
In last December 2005, I felt uncomfortable when the pastor of our church announced that you had got the leukemia, a disease that would have to undergo terrible treatment by chemotherapy.
In response to the bad news, I found that there was nothing I could do except remembering you and your poor family in my daily prayers though we have never been known to each other before. One day, when I learnt that your sister has the bone marrow (actually SCT according to your diary) fit for transplant, I became relieved as it would bring new hope to you, your pregnant wife and the three children. Thanks to our God who has been listening to our prayers.
However, the frequency in offering my prayers for healing your illness by our God had subsequently dropped in certain period of time, as I considered that our God had answered our prayers. In the last June, I found that the prayers should still be continued daily until some day, the doctors could confirm that the leukemia would have been got rid of completely from your body.
Here, I sincerely hope that the transplant performed in July has been really successful with a speedy recovery, and coupled with those trials of misery you have been overcoming, you and your whole family could have greater faith in our Lord. According to your dairy about the applied medical treatment and progress of your recovery, you have displayed a very strong faith in Him indeed. (I have only gone through some of the diary : from the beginning up to July 08 and also the last one of August 01 but I will go through the rest later.)
God bless you and your family.
In Christ,
Thomas (Sha Kok Alliance Church)
Vicent, I think it is not too difficult to find the dish out there, just enjoy yourself :-)
Thank you sister Li Kiong and brother David, I need to make sure that I post daily blog before 2000hrs. Thank you for the bible verses. I like it very much and I already memorize PSALM 121 earlier. God bless you.
Thank you Thomas for remembering in prayer. My wife is no longer pregnant now and the baby boy Aaron is 3 months old now:-) The bone marrow aspiration result is very promising - zero percent(blast) or cancer cell with very good engraftment. Anyway, we still have continue to pray for a complete cure. God bless you.
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