Day +19: tapering down the meds

Mina Brigitta woke up in a much better mood than yesterday, almost a happy mood. That goofy, toothy grin is back! Today was the first day that, when I asked her who was coming to see her, she didn't say "Anta!" Instead she said "Teetee", which is what she calls our friend Christine who was here. Anta was her second choice of course, but she was psyched when she saw Grandma. But she cried when I went to leave today, and she wouldn't go up with Grandma all day long. I think she's getting tired of being left with a new person every day. But I have to go to work and Keri is scrambling to get the apartment ready, so it can't be helped.

They've been tapering down her medications over the last few days. She's now off the antibiotics, antifungals and morphine drip, and they're stopping the IV nutrition tonight. Then all she'll have left is the cyclosporine and prednisone (anti-GVHD) and acyclovir (anti-viral). Sometime in the next few days they'll try to switch those to oral to get her ready to go home. The doctors mentioned the H-word for the first time today! They're shooting for Monday.

Dr. Loh came by today as well. She was happy to see Mina Brigitta doing so well, but she said she almost wishes Mina Brigitta had been a little sicker. I do share the underlying sentiment about the long-term, but the problems people have during treatment can be just as dangerous, so it'll be hard to be too disappointed if we get to go home on Monday with only the issues we've dealt with so far.