Sneaky farts and itchy feet

Fair warning: This might get a little gross.

Almost a week since my transplant day, and I'm still feeling pretty good, Doctors says things are progressing as expected. No major problems, but then the dreaded Graft vs Host Disease apparently doesn't kick in (if at all) until two weeks out.

The stem cells are not "engrafted" yet, which I think means they haven't started to produce their own blood cells. That's when the clash of old vs. new might occur. 

And I'm not sure how that will happen, because my own blood is seriously lacking these days. For example, my white blood cell count today is .20 where normal is between 4 and 11. That makes it difficult for my body to fight infection. Platelets, which allow your blood to clot and stop bleeding, are at 47. The dentists wouldn't even see me until I had a platelet count over 50.

So, the procedures of my first few days here --chemotherapy and irradiation -- have done their job. The expected side effects run the gamut (it can be anything, one doc said) but the common compliant is nausea and diarrhea. So far I've been lucky with (and medicated against) the former, but the latter persists.

The first night of the malady, my nurse warned, "don't trust a fart." I didn't get it until, well, I did.

My only other compliant sneaks in at night when I have trouble sleeping: itchy feet.

Maybe they itch all the time and I just don't pay attention to it, but it drove me nuts one night. Fortunately, as I suspect there is for any other malady, there's a drug for that. I'm not sure if Benadryl actually stops the sensation or just knocks you out so you don't notice.

As long as you don't ignore the fart.