Home Stretch

I've been owing a post for a few days now. There's a lot to report, but here are the headlines:

1. The possible infection was real. It turned out that the knee was fine, but the inspection of the central line revealed a couple of tender spots that led to cultures being taken from both tubes and a separate culture from my blood (straight from a vein, no tubes). The first two cultures were positive, but the last was not, meaning that the central line itself was the reservoir of the infection and it had not spread to my blood. So I've been on twice-a-day infusions of vancomycin all week, and yesterday they decided to pull the central line. That's a great relief to me, and everything feels better already. The downside is that all the rest of my blood draws and infusions will require sticking a needle in a vein. Believe me, I am totally accustomed to that, so it's no big deal.

2. The other news is all good. I have more than enough platelets and leukocytes to go home, and have an exit interview scheduled for Tuesday. The erythrocytes look like they are starting to come back a little now, as well. So we should be pulling out either Tuesday or Wednesday.

Next up: an assessment of how well I've responded to the transplant, and considerations about where we go from here.