The Bone Marrow Transplant Recovery Drug Cocktail Explained

Let me start by apologizing on this post being one day late.  You will just have to enjoy it over a relaxing Saturday morning coffee instead :)  Truthfully I had an entirely different post planned for yesterday but as I reflected more on what I wanted to write I felt today's post needed to be said.

I have mentioned a few times over the past couple weeks how much difficulty my body has been having.  I lost over 16 pounds over the course of 2 weeks, scary I know.  They almost admitted me into the hospital for thanksgiving weekend to fill me up with fluids.  Instead we changed up my drug cocktail which seemed to curtail the issue of losing water and now I am up 20 pounds from that point.  Yes you heard it right, my weight has fluctuated over 36 pounds in the past 4 weeks.  Needless to say I hadn't been feeling much like myself. 

Don't worry though, I am been riding this roller coaster now for almost 10 months and I have learned to just go with it. 

I often talk about my drug cocktails but never really go into detail, I thought today I could explain the mix and how it affects my BMT recovery rollercoaster.

The "Cocktail" is a mix of three different types of drugs:
1.) Immunosuppressants
2.) Protector Pills (as I like to call them)
3.) Prophalytic Pills

Remembering to Feed Our Roots

Last weekend we just finished with Thanksgiving, and in my weekend post I not only shared what I was thankful for but many of you joined in and and shared as well.  Not lost in all of this was the true meaning of Thanksgiving which was to give thanks and celebrate the successful harvest.

It got me thinking what does it really take to have a successful harvest?  Well first it takes the farmers a great deal of work just to get the crops out of the field, but there is is so much prep work before hand.  From the moment the seeds are planted into the earth, work is being done to ensure that months later they reap their rewards of a great harvest.  I would imagine the main focus of their early work is to create a strong root system for their plants.  These plants aren't like the ones in our gardens that get pampered with nice soil, sunlight, and constant watering.  These are exposed to all the elements, and without healthy roots they would just get defeated but the constant barrage of pressure mother nature places on them.

Finding Happiness

Over the past month and a half life has been extremely hectic around here between moving, getting sick, battling two infections in my mouth and battling what looks to be a case of GI tract GVHD.  I have really not felt well for almost 4 weeks which is an extreme drain on your mood, yes even on me Mr Positive :)

It had sucked all enjoyment out of my life.  I had to drastically change my diet to a very bland diet consisting of no fibre, fatty foods, or dairy.  I had low energy, and couldn't eat very much due to both pain in my mouth and loss of appetite.  To top it all off with the GI problems were causing me to always have to go to the washroom, which meant I couldn't stray far from home. 

This is one of the reasons I started the photography year in review as a means to try and find some joy again.  It is not healthy for us to continually be down, it breeds depression and can be harder and harder to pull ourselves out of with each passing day.