March 31, 2012 Transplant +116 days

Just when you think you are okay ….
From December 2011, when I had my second stem cell transplant, I have wanted to publish this post at least every two weeks.  Now that I am well into my recovery (still a ways to go) I will probably post something either every three or four weeks.  

The past 24 hours have been interesting as I experienced a big drop in blood pressure (as low as 69/42).  It is unclear what triggers this.  The best I can figure out is yesterday I thought I could eat a dozen chocolate chips.  I have this sweet tooth that was not affected by the high dose of chemo.  My GI system is still weak from the chemo with the stem cell transplant.  Chocolate is pretty harsh on a tender tummy.  We are speculating food will bring on the lightheadedness.  The doctors do not know what causes this either.  The good news is this episode did not send me into the hospital.  I spoke with the on-call oncologist today who told me start eating salty foods and to take one additional pill that increases my blood pressure.  This seemed to help.  By afternoon my blood pressure was up to 116/72. 

The big event in the news yesterday was the Mega Million Lottery and a projected winning ticket of $650 million.  For the first time in my life I seriously thought about going down to the local Safeway and purchasing one ticket.  I even came up with the numbers I would play using birth dates from the grand kids (10,11,13,25,26  and 28).  While the odds were against me, I figured I have beaten the odds the past three years with my disease.  Well I did not buy a ticket.  My selection of a ticket would not have brought home half a billion dollars.  That’s okay.  I believe I have been given the better deal (though I still yearn for that Yellow 911 Porsche; see November 26, 2011 blog entry; Photo credit KOMO News.com).