The hospital food I’ve had so far has been pretty good, surprisingly. There’s a decent range of cuisines you can order from, much like a hotel room service! Anything from American comfort foods like mac & cheese to generic Italian foods like lasanga and pizza. Some examples are as follows:

Eggs and bacon, cream of wheat, a fruit snack box, blueberry yogurt, two cups of Peet’s coffee

Roast beef sandwich on wheat bread, a veggie snack box, chips, a banana, chamomile tea, two bottles of water

Chicken quesadilla, steamed veggies, strawberry ice cream, two bottles of water

Scrambled eggs with cheese, bacon, hash brown, yogurt parfait, two cups of Peet’s coffee, one bottle of water

Cheeseburger, steamed veggies, side salad, a banana, cup of Peet’s coffee, two bottles of water

Chicken ginger juk, chicken shumai, rice, steamed veggies, chamomile tea, one bottle of water

Oatmeal, hard boiled egg, an orange, a banana, two cups of Peet’s coffee, one bottle of water (my appetite has been declining)

  Cheese quesadilla, chicken noodle soup, veggie snack box, chocolate milk, two bottles of water

I’ve been eating fairly well since being in the hospital, but haven’t been passing as many bowel movements as I should. They have me on stool softeners and mild laxatives, so hopefully my movements will become more regular. Bottom line, hospital food isn’t all that bad. 🙂

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I had a really rough night last night. Aside from the chronic pee breaks that horribly disrupted my sleep, I came down with a mild grade fever around 5AM (38.6degC) that had my nurses worried. They immediately did a chest X-ray, took a urine sample, and took a blood culture to see if I have an infection. The X-ray (to check for an lesions/fluids) came back negative and the preliminary urine sample came back negative. We’re waiting for the blood cultures to see if there is anything to be worried about — there’s usually a 24 hour turn around time for those.

The fever came and went all morning until about 3PM when it finally broke and I sweat it out. Not going to lie, I was really worried, and I felt like complete crap the whole time. They medicated me with acetaminophen and oxycodone to keep the pain at bay. Thankfully the fever broke sooner rather than later. My doctors think that it’s prolly just the chemo that induced the fever, considering that my neutrophil count wasn’t low (in fact it was elevated today). Because of this stupid congestion cough that I still have and the fever, they’ve put me in quarantine until the final tests come back negative. That means no walking around outside my room. I’m not that upset about it since I’ve just been watching Netflix all day. Speaking of which, I just finished Season 3 of House of Cards. Biggest. Letdown. Ever. Ugh.

Today is the last day of the hardcore regiments of chemo. Last round of rabbit ATG, cyclophosphamide, mesna, and fludarabine! Woot! Less interrupting pee breaks for me! Tomorrow I begin a different drug called Tacrolimus which is supposed to help mediate/alleviate potential graft-vs-host disease. Then it’s a day of rest of day -1, then transplant and a new regiment of drugs starting day 0. I’m excited to get this show on the road!

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I must say, I’ve had such a wonderful experience here at UCSF so far. All of the staff from nurses, to admin, to NPs, to MDs have all been wonderful people to work with. They are really caring and so damn smart. Major props to my gurls Caitlin and Girlie though. They’ve taken the best care of me! I’m so grateful to be under their care. 🙂