Remarkable blood!

Raffles Hospital, looking ethereal today (only a tiny bit of filtering...).

I am freeeeeee! Here I am, at the apartment (I am aware that I've been wearing this top in a lot of the photos so far, I promise I brought others, but this one is the most comfortable, especially when I have various taps protruding from my body (I still have the central line, you can sort of see it under my top. They'll probably take it out when I go back to the hospital for blood tests on Monday)):

Mum and Peter have just gone out to the supermarket, so I've taken the mask off. We're all just being super careful: Mum and Peter are also wearing masks when they're around me, and I'm wearing the heavy-duty type, for now, because Mum is unsure whether she's harbouring some kind of mild cold. Better safe than sorry.

Also, Mum, in conjunction with the housekeepers, did a massive cleaning effort this morning before I came back; the smell of Dettol is pervasive! But it is really really good for me to be in an extra clean place right now.

So I was in the hospital for two weeks exactly--I was expecting to be in there for closer to three. But my white blood cell recovery is remarkable: you know how I was 1.1 yesterday, and it was like 'Wow!'? I am 6.09 today. That's crazy; it's only day +10! Dr Loh is very pleased. I'm wondering if this super quick recovery is due to having over double the amount of minimum required filtered stem cells put back? Don't know, suffice to say that I'm super stoked! They will go down a bit at some point probably, but this is truly excellent!

Just a few quick hospital room photos. This is the view from my window (it was Singapore's National Day yesterday, marking 52 years of Singapore's independence from Malaysia. This is a big day of celebration, and I believe there was a remarkable parade and fireworks spectacle. We could only half see the fireworks from my room, because buildings got in the way):



My room was an isolation room, so that meant it was kept pressure neutral - the outside air couldn't be sucked into the room because there was a double door system. When someone wanted to come in to my actual room, there was a holding area, while the door to the ward closed, then the person could enter my actual room. See:



And when I was free (discharged), both doors were released to open up:

The room was also kept extraordinarily cold, I think to prevent the growth of any bugs that managed to get through the doors.

So yeah! I felt well looked after, both as a result of the room precautions, but also the staff, they were all great 😊

And now I'm back at the apartment, I'm still taking precautionary oral medication (anti-virals, steroids (to prevent a thing that can happen called Engraftment Syndrome), and some antibiotics). Next, I have an appointment back at the hospital on Monday to check progress. I'll update after that! (This blog post ended up being much longer than I intended.)

Love, Rach xx

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