Arthur went home Sunday to try to get caught up on work. Our oldest son A.G. is with me this week. A.G. is helping me with the daily journal entries from my dictation.

First a positive note, the Ambien worked like a charm last night. I only needed one pill and I actually had restful sleep.

Today is the first day of extreme nausea from the chemo. Zorfran is now prescribed every 8 hours for the nausea, I am also receiving Phenergan. These medicines are only able to curb some of the nausea. It has become very hard to keep any food down. This morning I wasn’t able to keep down granola, I was unable to eat any lunch, but I was able to eat a bowl of Jell-O and a few bites of pudding for dinner.

Interesting Notes: While in the hospital I have been given a plastic cylinder called incentive spirometer “The Puffer.” It has a tube for you to suck air through; this is to help fight pneumonia.

I have talked about people walking in the halls; this is actually a very important part of your routine while you are in the hospital. You would literally not be able to walk if you allowed yourself to stay in bed the whole time. Three to four walks a day are recommended around the pods on the 11th floor. They recommend that you walk about 10 minutes each time if you can.

Final Note: This is Day -1. Day 0 (or as A.G. insists on calling it D Day) is tomorrow. I will receive my stem cells tomorrow.

I appreciate your continued best wishes, thoughts and prayers. I also know there are unanswered e-mails in my inbox, please know that I will get to them as soon as physically possible.