Tuesday ~ 25 August: Day 38

How time flies when you're having fun. LOL. So I've made it through the first month post-transplant. There have been some up days and some down days. I had OTU clinic appointments on Tuesday and Friday last week, but I didn't do any blog posts last week 'cause I just wasn't feeling so great. But I'm much better today. And I had another clinic appointment this morning.

First my counts ~
Platelets: 150,000 This is a wonderful, in the NORMAL range, platelet number. They weren't this high when I was first diagnosed back in 2005.
White Count: 5.6 Another good normal number (3.9-10.7 is the normal range.)
Neutrophils: 4.56 (1.4-7.7 is normal). I can't really count these as "normal" as I'm taking all these immunosupressant drugs. Still wearing my mask when I leave the apartment.
Hematocrit: 31. (36-43 is normal.) It was down to 28 last week. I was feeling tired and out of breath all the time, so they gave me 2 units of red cells. Those are holding pretty well, and I have felt stronger since getting them.

Last Tuesday I had my one month bone marrow biopsy. I was sedated, but they told me they had to stick me twice. YIKES. Still sore a week later. But the good news is the engraftment is working. Some of the results are back now. There are lots of things they look at to see if engraftment is happening and at what rate, and they check three main cell lines. They were hoping that by the first month I would be showing at least 60%, but hopefully more like 80% of my donor's cells to my cells.

The first cell line they checked for me is also my genetic karyotype. Because my donor is male, if the engraftment worked, then my karyotype changes from female to male. Well my friends, it is a miracle. I tested out at 100%. My karyotype will now always be male and I can never participate in the Olympics. The next line they checked came in at 96% donor cells. Every day I think positively and visualise my donor's cells replicating and making themselves at home in my bones. Becoming happy, healthy bone marrow to produce happy, healthy, and plenty of blood cells. 100% and 96% are way better than 80%.

There is a lot of other stuff they check and most of it is not back yet, but my doctor was just thrilled and I mean seriously. He is very laid back and quiet. Today he seemed almost giddy with excitement that I am doing so exceptionally well.

So my friends, I thank all of you. I know that all your intentions, prayers, good thoughts and communing with the universe have helped tremendously. I'm still weak compared to normal and have a long way to go, but right now this is amazing! My next OTU clinic appointment is Friday. They said if I am doing as well then as I am now, that they will likely switch me to only going in one day a week. Life is good!


namasté,


P.S. When we left the clinic we went shopping. (Had to get in my walking for the day!) Mike bought me a beautiful red leather ottoman, ostensibly for my birthday, but mainly because we needed something like that here in the apartment. This will work great with my furniture at home, too. Did I mention it's red?