Day "+1"

Sigve was admitted on day minus eight, transplant day was day zero, so today is day plus one. Now we count up!

Thank God, Gerd was feeling a whole lot better today. When Hilde Marie and I came up to Sigve's room she was there, knitting away. She had asked for a strong pain killer and a sleeping pill last night, and had slept well and long. She was in a room with 4 beds, and the only disturbance had been when someone got up and fell over in the middle of the night. A big bang and a lot of screaming. Fortunately she was able to take no notice, and go back to sleep.

And the miracles just keep on happening. This morning my eye showed no sign of infection, so I could visit Sigve again.

My only major, but still minor, problem is that the hinges on my MacBook Air broke last night. It still works, as you can see, but I can't close it, so it's inconvenient to carry around. Fortunately it happened while I'm in Bergen, so today I took it to the Mac doctor, he's ordering new parts, and will call me when he gets them. Piece of cake so far.

While I was off to the Mac doctor, Gerd, Hilde Marie and Sigve took a one hour walk outside in fresh air, around the hospital area. So you see Sigve is doing and feeling very well. And as long as he is doing so well, Sigve is only hooked up to Hangman from 4 pm to midnight. From 4 pm -8 pm he gets a medication called Sandimun, to prevent "graft versus host" disease. Usually in a transplant situation, the body has to accept the new organ. In this case, the new stem cells have to accept Sigve. Even though Gerd is a tissue match, the fact that she is female and has given birth makes the match slightly less than 100%, so there may occur anything from a slight (skin rash, inflammation) to a more severe reaction (liver and/or lung failure). Most people get dry and sore mucous membranes, especially in the mouth, making it hard and painful to eat and swallow. He's already getting rinses to prevent this. I'm just mentioning all this in passing as we assume Sigve will get very little of it.

From 8 pm to midnight he gets fluids, and then he's disconnected, so he can sleep freely till morning.

We still don't know when Sigve will have to be confined to isolation. It will happen when his immune system is so low that he has no resistance to infections any more, and he will stay there until the new stem cells have settled and started renewing the immune system. Blood tests are taken every day to monitor just about everything in his blood. This morning they had to draw blood twice because the first time they forgot to label the ampules...

Just before I left him today, a nurse came in to clean and redress Hicky's exit hole. If you're tough enough you can study the picture of it. The nurse laughed when I called it a "Facebook" moment. As you know it's on the right side of his chest.

I told you before that I'm staying at Casa Seime when I'm in Bergen. Brita and Ketil are our very close friends from way back when, actually since 1975. I have a room here and a key, and can come and go as I please, and can totally relax here. A wonderful friendship!

Today I am grateful for

*Good friends

*Preventive medication

*Beautiful sunny weather