Diagnosis: Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). A Journey

24 days after going into the hospital for his bone marrow transplant and 208 days after his first hospital admittance, George was discharged with new donor cells working hard to manufacture new blood cells!

He was supposed to be released on day +16 because his counts were recovering so well! But, on Saturday he didn’t eat his lunch or dinner and vomited, so they canceled the discharge plan and tried to get the nausea under control. Sunday the team got a plan together to manage his nausea and they said they could release him, if he was ready to go home. Yes, please! His white blood cell count was 1.7 and his absolute neutrophil count (ANC) was over the required 500 count mark. Yay!!

So, he was discharged at about 3:00. When we got home, we were met with a beautiful surprise! Our dear friends, Debi and Rick had decorated the front of our house to welcome George home! He was blown away! When I told him Debi and Rick had done it, he got choked up and teary-eyed. It was so generous and so thoughtful…it really put a sweet cap on the day and on the homecoming! What a blessing and a joy to have friends like that! We are so grateful!

The first thing I did once we got inside was try to get George’s medicines sorted because he would have to take a round that evening. So many pills! OY!

We are still working on George’s appetite. He doesn’t really show a lot of interest in food. I cooked some hamburger patties on the grill and he managed to eat almost a whole patty, but that was it for the evening. Hoping he eats more tomorrow. So happy he is home! It felt so normal to settle in on the couch with him across from me in his recliner while we watched Jeopardy! and then a show on Netflix. We know it’s not normal, though and we will have a visit from the home infusion nurse tomorrow to get us set up for twice weekly labs and show me how to give George his daily magnesium infusions. Not normal….but so much better at home.