Good Days. Bad Days

It is now Day 26 since I received my bone marrow transplant. This is the time when Graft Versus Host disease should be starting to manifest itself. So far the symptoms I am experiencing are probably residual effects of the chemotherapy. I have nausea of and on that makes most foods that I usually love to seem repulsive. I have been trying to eat something most days if it is only ice cream. My taste buds are shot again. Acidic food often has a bitter and metallic aftertaste. It will be more than a month before my taste buds heal and I will be able to taste food again. On Sunday I had some really bizarre symptoms. Both my palms on the thumb side felt like they were dipped in boiling water. I had no pain meds at the time. I found out that if I held my hands in cold water then I could find relief. I toughed it out all night clutching frozen water bottles with both hands and tried to sleep. The next day we went to the clinic and were prescribed Vicodin and Lidocaine cream. The cream worked for a few hours at a time but the heat started to spread to between my fingers and my knuckles. I felt like I was putting out spot fires on my hands while the burning spread. I was trying to avoid using the Vicodin because of all the side effects that came with it. By bedtime I gave up and popped a Vicodin. In about an hour the pain started to subside and by the next morning it was completely gone. It has yet to flare up again. Only one Vicodin did the trick. The doctor said it was probably a nerve inflammation.

In the daytime if we are not going to the clinic we are exploring San Francisco and the vicinity. We drove down the coast as far as Pacifica and took a walk on the beach. The Pier is popular there because people are catching crabs. The surf last weekend was the highest I have ever seen. Waves were crashing over the seawall in Pacifica. They looked nearly 20 feet high. We continued down the coast but Billie stopped at Devils Slide. Huge drop offs and exposure like that terrify her. We have also been taking walks outside our apartment on the paths around Merced Lake. We took a few walks at Lands End near the Cliff House. I miss the old Playland at the Beach where we always used to go. Now there are just ugly apartments there. I was curious about Lands End because I have heard it is a great place to find Bolete mushrooms. There are pure stands of Cyprus trees that are good bolete habitat. It is too dry now to find anything now.

I am spending a lot of time at home too. My energy levels are pretty low for my usual self. I have good days and bad days with no predictable sequence. Hopefully the good days will begin to outnumber the bad.

Mike