Back To Out-Patient

This afternoon I was discharged from the cancer center's in-patient unit. After more than 72 hours, I am finally untethered from the IV pumps. The only remaining symptom that I continue to struggle with is the occasional episode of nausea.

My blood cell counts are all back in the normal ranges, in some cases even higher than that. Partly this is due to the injections of growth factor (Neupogen) that I have been getting for several days; these have now been stopped, so we can expect that the counts will dip (but not crash, as before) over the next couple of days. The stem cells are supposed to pick up the slack and finally return the counts to normal, once and for all. Assuming that happens, and that I don't get sick again in the interim, the stem cell transplant team will declare final victory, and discharge me to go home, probably in another week or so. I would formally return to the jurisdiction of the good old Christiana oncologist, whose responsibility I would once again become.