Restrictions Lifted

I had a Dr.'s visit and tests yesterday.  The conclusion was that many of my lifestyle restrictions were lifted, as expected, for "Day 30" (today, which is 30 days from my stem cell infusion).

Rules relaxed as of yesterday:

• Almost all bacteria rules have been relaxed. I can now eat (clean) raw vegetables and soft-yolk eggs, and restaurant foods. We celebrated at Wendy's, which I'm today regretting for gut-overload reasons. Sushi, however, remains off-limits.
• The platelet rules have also been relaxed: I will be permitted to exercise and ride my bike (but still not in traffic...that's a "mental focus" restriction).  

Not Relaxed:

• Most of the fungus rules (no unpasturized or soft cheeses, no gardening) are still in force. "Can I go in the basement yet?" is on the list of questions I'll submit by e-mail.
• The virus rules remain for the rest of flu season, mostly about avoiding sick people, because they remain deathly afraid of Flu and Norovirus, and on hair trigger to start me and Mrs Blogger on Tamiflu if anyone in the family is even a little bit glassy-eyed or achy.

Lungs:

The centerpiece of the day was the lung testing (Pulmonary Function Tests / PFT) were I sit in a glass booth and breathe into a snorkle mouthpiece with a big, strong nose clip on my big strong nose. I did well--essentially matching the baseline set by the same tests just after Christmas and before my transplant 

We were checking for signs of lung inflammation, which about 30% of patients develop at this stage. I'm on preventative antibiotics to keep any inflammation (pneumonitis) from progressing to pneumonia. Some patients detect the inflammation in themselves with shortness of breath. The idea is that the PFT can detect it even if early or subtle.  Had I had function loss, they'd have put me on a steriod.

But, as noted, it was all good, across all 3 tests: Lung Volume (super-inhale w/complete exhale), Oxygen Capacity (inhale-and-hold a Carbon Monoxide tracer,* analogizing its uptake to Oxygen uptake), and Lung Pressure (a puff-suck pressure test that somehow elaborates the Volume test with a measure of pressure).

*Yes, the Carbon Monoxide that, if it replaced too much Oxygen, would be fatal. In this case they add just a teensy amount to normal air, have me inhale and hold, and they measure how much less CO is in the first exhale--versus what I inhaled-- as a way of measuring the efficiency-absorbancy of my blood.

Immune System:

The blood tests showed that the Absolute Neutrophil Count had fallen to barely above 1000 (the threshold for "going home") but my White Blood Count had held firm at a good-enough 2.9 (4.5 is the low end of normal-people normal).  

You can think of 2.9 as a restatement of a count of 2900 white blood cells of all types. A week ago my WBC of 2.9 was based on 1500 ANCs and only 1400 of other cell types (like lymph cells).  This week's 2.9 means that I have 1000 ANCs and 1900 of the other cell types....so rather than worry that ANCs fell, they liked to see my lymph cells coming back