Day Minus 2 - Swelling, Walking, Visiting

The swelling from yesterday has continued. It started to reach my hands but then I started knitting again and the moving of the fingers has helped reduce the swelling in my fingers. At about 1:30 p.m. I was disconnected from the IV and this allowed me to walk more easily and be up and down and moving. The swelling is still there but I'll be working on moving around to reduce it. As was asked after yesterday's post, the swelling is due to all the saline solution and fluids that have been constantly pumped into me since Wednesday night.

Hubby came by to spend the afternoon and part of the evening with me. Last night I started having trembling and shaking in my hands and a feeling of trembling inside my body. As a result, I need to have someone walk with me at all times until this trembling/shaking is gone. The nurses are afraid it my attack my knees and I could collapse. We're not sure what is causing the trembling. At first, we thought it was fatigue but it doesn't appear to make a difference. Then we wondered if it was low blood sugar near mealtimes and snacks. That doesn't seem to make a difference. We're keeping an eye on it. So I got off track a little. Hubby was my walking companion. We have been exploring different areas in the hospital and learning about the history of the hospital. The days can be long. When hubby and I return from our walks, he checks Facebook and I go back to knitting with my feet up. Today hubby brought a deck of cards from home for me to play solitaire by myself when I have no one here. Tonight, we played "Go Fish". We haven't played this for many, many years and it took some time for the rules to reassert themselves in my mind. Tomorrow hubby is going to bring the cribbage board and we can play cribbage together.

This morning I received a really nice phone call from my daughter. She had only a small amount of time to chat but it was really lovely to hear her voice and have a brief visit. Speaking of visits, I had a very good friend who works at the hospital come by on her break to visit. We had a lovely time and caught up on how all our various children are doing. Hopefully, she will be able to visit again tomorrow and maybe have one of her daughters with her. This family is a lovely, warm and caring group. I've known them for several years and always enjoy seeing them. Visitors help make the time here go by more quickly

I am now on a high protein and high calorie diet after having met with the nutrition yesterday. This is in an effort to keep my weight up and also help my red blood cells and platelets rebound after the transplant on Monday. I'm a little concerned about the next week to 2 weeks and how bad I will feel. It's a good thing I'm in the hospital as the nurses are taking wonderful care of me. I have a great health care team. I see a doctor or a resident doctor every day. The nurses are very caring and attentive. This relieves the worries in my mind and helps me stay calm. I truly feel like I am on a ride and we'll see where it takes me. Does it take me down into the low valleys? Then will the ride travel along in the low valley for a week? Does the ride take a steep climb up to the regular level or does it take a slow, gradual climb up the steep hill? However the ride goes, I'm in good hands. I'm in God's hands. I'm in the hands of my health care team. Perhaps it is God working through the health care team and they are God's hands. I like that thought and I feel calmed.

It's now getting close to my bedtime so I must sign off and start my bedtime routine which includes a mouth rinse that I need to do at least 4 times each day. This will help to keep the mouth sores (canker sores inside the mouth). It was hard to say good bye to my hubby tonight. I'll see him tomorrow though.