I know it’s been a long time since I’ve given an update, but before I start the update I have to say, prayer works, and thank you for all the thousands of prayers offered on our behalf. This has been a tough 2 ½ weeks. You might have heard or be tempted to say, “Jim’s tough, he’s a fighter”, but this had nothing to do with me. The fact that I’m sitting at home right now giving you this update, is all God’s hand once again working in my life. There were many days I had no energy and no desire for energy, I’d just lie in bed waiting for the days to pass. The fact that my blood counts responded so quickly and allowed me an early discharge had nothing to do with me or my fight. Prayer works.

The days following the transplant are a blur. I know that immediately following the transplant I felt pretty good, but as each day passed and my blood counts crept towards zero, I had less and less energy. Rock bottom was Monday the 19th into Tuesday the 20th. I’d acquired an infection in the stomach, and starting Monday afternoon, I had a fever, high blood pressure, and high pulse rate. As the evening progressed, I developed rigors, which is uncontrollable shivering or shaking. I got Demerol to relieve the shaking, but it came back within 45 minutes. They gave me over 2 liters of fluid throughout the night and a blood transfusion-they wanted to give me two units but were only able to give me one due to the high fever. The fever broke around 3 a.m. Tuesday and the worst was over. The next couple of days are simply gone, I just know I had had no energy and didn’t really care. Amazingly, my blood counts started going back up Tuesday, and made dramatic increases on Thursday. Not surprising, Thursday’s the day I started feeling better. My counts kept getting better, to the point where there wasn’t any reason to keep me in the hospital. Saturday the 24th I was discharged, but needed to stay local in case anything came up, plus I had a follow up appointment on the 27th. At the appointment it was determined that because of my counts and the fact I had had good care available at home, there wasn’t really any reason to keep me around. They were a little nervous about the release because it was earlier than they expected. They made it clear I’m supposed to limit my contact with others as much as possible and wear a mask when there is contact, and notify all the doctors whenever I have any new symptoms-cold, fever, anything. So the next couple of months will be interesting as my immune system rebounds.

I’m still very tired and my energy seems to fluctuate throughout the day. Being home should help me get better more quickly, but I’m sure there’ll be a lot of long days sitting at home.
Again, thank you for all your prayers and support. It works.
Prayer works.