AML: Round 4... Full House

I am back in Sanford for round 4 of my chemo treatments to treat my acute myeloid leukemia (AML). I have resided on the 6th floor - C wing of Sanford Hospital for all my treatments since I was diagnosed Sept 23rd, 2010. The C wing is mainly for leukemia and blood cancers.

I guess it has been pretty busy here the last few weeks. It's a full house. When I was checking in, there was only one room available on the C wing and it was being assigned to someone else who checked in just before me. I was going to be assigned a room somewhere else in the hospital with a staff I would have been mostly unfamiliar with.

But, it's nice to be popular...

The C wing nurse assigning rooms was one of my nurses from a prior treatment. Evidently she saw my name come through, reassigned the other person and slipped me into the last room on C wing. I'd like to think it's my sparkling personality that has endeared me to the nurses here, but I am guessing it is becasue I am pretty low maintenance.

I'm by far the youngest person on the wing this time and by the looks of it I am one of the few capable of getting around on my own. That being said, I am relatively sure everyone else on the floor will be released before I am. Only a very few patients have the extended stays that I do.

So I am settled back in to the C wing now. I don't have one of the special rooms with my own air flow, but I imagine I will be moved in a week or so when my counts start dropping. For now, it's like being back in the college dorm. I have my door open so I can see people passing by and I feel like I have a hangover... yep, just like college.

The treatment for round 4 is exactly the same as my prior round. The doctor tells the the cumulative effect of the chemo over multiple rounds is what is probably making me so much more tired this time. The doc has also made it very clear that I will not be going home until fully recovered this time. I am getting the impression he doesn't care for my suggestions regarding my treatment.

I am settled back into a familiar place with familiar people undergoing a treatment I am familiar with. Familiar is good.

On a final note: We had planned a family trip to the cities for last weekend, but canceled because of the weather. Turned out to be a good decision. It was super icy in Sioux Falls and the cities got something like 15" of snow. We had a lot of fun in town. We took the kids bowling and to movies. Andrea and I even imagined to get away and do a little shopping.