I am Arjun Jain

New look – head shaved! 

On Monday, April 22^nd, back to hospital to get my counts checked. They were still low as expected. My ANC was only 190 and my Hb 8.7 so they told me to come back next Monday. It was not a happy day…. first I lost 2-3 lbs in last one week, then I had to stay without the food and water after midnight for spinal tap just in case my counts were good and now they are not so I have to go back to do the same thing next Monday. Also my doctor asked me to walk on my heels which I am not able to do. Even standing on the heels is hard. I tried to do it with holding on to the table but could not do it. The heels started to pain. Doctor told me an exercise to do and at home my mom was constantly reminding me the proper way to walk and the stretching exs to do every day. Sometimes it is annoying to not being able to things that were so easy before.

I was having such a hard time with food because i no longer take the appetite stimulant after the reaction I had. It worries me but not that much but I know my mom is very worried about it. My grandparents have been so caring and always trying to help me eat. In terms of dealing with the food with me, I think my dad has more patience than what I thought he had. He would get different foods for me from outside any time of the day in case I did not want to eat the home food but then I would eat very little or not eat it at all because of nausea or lost my appetite. It is sad to see food go to waste but I cannot help it.

Even though I was not having such a great week but still two exciting things happened. On April 24^th, I had a visit from my favorite hockey coach and his son who is also my classmate. We had good time talking about hockey and planning my return to the hockey. It was very exciting!! Second fun thing was on April 25^th, I finally got my head shaved. Looking at my clean bald head, my mom and i realized that I have a good round shaped head and I do not look bad at all with bald head. Now I just have to see how long will it take for my hair to grow back! I enjoyed some good weather on the weekend with the hope that my counts would go up so I can start my 5^th phase soon.