Day +10 Miscellany

My hair was starting to fall out rather quickly yesterday, so I decided to bite the bullet and get my head shaved. Whew! I’m glad that’s over. It was much harder than I ever dreamed. I feel as though I look like a little old man and I am not happy. I know this is just one more step in the many that I have to take to get to the end of this nightmare, but it's not easy. My hair will grow back (it takes 6 months to 1 year to grow back a full head) and in the scheme of things it’s a small price to pay. But, I’ll warn ya – I’m sensitive about it, so no bald jokes!

My counts today are 27.2 - Red; 70 - White; 16 K - platelets (after receiving one unit last night); with an ANC of O. Keep watching the white count - it will go even lower as I tend towards bottoming out. I am still on my usual antibiotics, anti-fungals and all the other stuff they are giving me.

I now have mouth sores (mucositis). They started out looking like little blood blisters and then they just turn sore. Sometimes they swell a little. Mine are located in the back, kinda where my jaw hinges, so it prevents me from opening my mouth too far. Right now I feel like I have the beginnings of a sore throat. We all know what that feels like. So far, they are tolerable and I've been told there are soothing and numbing medications if necessary.