A New Hope

(Yes, the title is reference to Star Wars.) First, the bad news. Yesterday was perhaps the worst day of my life so far. Aside from expelling the 16+ pounds of bowel matter (not exaggerating), hardly sleeping for the past 11 days rendered me physically exhausted to a point I have never before known, disoriented, and even made it difficult to balance myself. I couldn't eat, sleep, watch tv (pounding headaches), or go outside (neutropenic), and had been awake for at least 30 hours straight. I spent the day in a daze, attempting to keep walking to get the GI system moving, and waiting for something good to happen.

Eventually the magnesium citrate started to work, and my system began to clear. Ali got home last night at about 9:45 with some ambien (sleep medicine) and nexium (heartburn). I took some and went to sleep. I checked my temperature just about every hour last night, and it never went over 99.7F. I finally got a good night's rest.

This morning I woke up feeling like I had endured a day of torture, and that today would bring the nutrient rich fluid that refreshes and replenishes my body. It turns out that this fluid is cold lemon-lime Gatorade. My stomach is still a bit upset, but I am now able to eat food again, and look forward to even taking a nap a bit later on.

I also received a care package from my Mom this morning. Included in it were a Lance Armstrong Survivorship binder with lots of good information about surviving TC. She also sent along a package of powdered Gatorade, Purell, and Suzy Q's! These Hostess snack cakes were my favorite growing up, and still hold a special place in my heart. It brought tears to my eyes to see so many of them waiting for me once the box was opened. I look forward to diving into these things just as soon as I consume some base foods (breads, protein, etc).


This is more than enough of my complaining for one day. Today is already a much better day, and I am thankful to all of you who have been supporting Allison and I during this journey. Hopefully we can avoid some of these same mistakes next time.

I also know that there are people coming through the blog occasionally who are researching TC. Please do not be discouraged by these posts. These are just the hard learned lessons we have gained, and I hope that those of you facing similar situations can find both education on dealing with TC, and knowledge and hope that things will pass.