The doctor delivered some good news yesterday, the complete results from last week's bone marrow biopsy. My bone marrow shows no signs of disease or even minimum residual disease (yay!) and there is no evidence of chimerism in my marrow either! Chimerism [the first part pronounced like the word 'sky' minus the 's,' as in ky-myrrh (like the incense)-ism] is the detection of two different genetic profiles in one sample. So, the test is essentially telling me that all of my bone marrow is gone, and the only thing which is left are the stem cells from the donor, my mom's cells. There is no mixture of my cells and her cells, which is good because that means there are no competing forces for space and resources in my marrow. Her cells get carte blanche to make my blood from now on!
Seemingly, they have made a little more hemoglobin for me since Monday, so I've got a little more energy than I did this time last week. Although, my stomach still does not like being bombarded with hand-fulls of pills every other hour, which forces me to take it easy. The doctor is also going to stop the IV fluids altogether. The less time I spend at the hospital, the less I am exposed to people with infections and the like. So, this weekend I'm free from any tethered tubing from a pole, as a test, and next week I may even get a few days off from having to go to the hospital at all, except for lab-work and, of course, seeing the good doctor.
It appears that they have learned that patients recover better at home than if they had remained bed-ridden... Ah! Twenty-First Century advances! Now where's that barbecue sandwich from last night... oh no, wait, today's Friday, time for tuna fish sandwiches and Lay's potato chips!
Friday, April 8, 2011
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Like A Tortoise...
Strong and majestic, these animals lumber along slowly but surely, just like my blood counts. My blood counts have stabilized just shy of normal ranges for now. Of course, the doctor and my nurses all say that full recovery takes time and my counts are sure to keep going up. However, I, being an impatient patient, much prefer to see my counts go up now, to where they belong, and park there forever. Things just don't work that way though, so I must learn patience, again, it seems. I thought I had learned that one!
The biggest daily problem I now face is my terrible indigestion due to constant pill-popping. I take several drugs, several times a day, all throughout the day, and none of them sit well. So, I am constantly compensating with immodium and maalox, pepcid and zofran. I haven't taken a pain killer in almost two weeks though, because my muscles seem to be beginning to recover from the month in the hospital.
I am taking walks at night when nobody else is roaming the hallways. Tonight I hope to do three laps around my apartment complex which would make for a 15-20 minute walk. If I can accomplish that for a few nights in a row, I think I will then be ready for a half-hour session on a pool table. Most of you know my passion for the game, or that I played in college, but you might not know just how physically taxing serious practice can be. I think I'm going to buy a pedometer to keep track of the distance I walk while simply circling the pool table several hundred times during a session. The results will be interesting to say the least. Perhaps, after I can walk for 45 minutes, or practice pool for an hour, I will be ready to jump on a stationary bike or elliptical machine for a few minutes. It will be a while until I can jog, but that is my own personal physical therapy ultimate goal. When I go back home to El Paso, I hope very much to be able to use our elliptical machine and go for a jog around the neighborhood each and every day, you know, to keep the doctor away.
The biggest daily problem I now face is my terrible indigestion due to constant pill-popping. I take several drugs, several times a day, all throughout the day, and none of them sit well. So, I am constantly compensating with immodium and maalox, pepcid and zofran. I haven't taken a pain killer in almost two weeks though, because my muscles seem to be beginning to recover from the month in the hospital.
I am taking walks at night when nobody else is roaming the hallways. Tonight I hope to do three laps around my apartment complex which would make for a 15-20 minute walk. If I can accomplish that for a few nights in a row, I think I will then be ready for a half-hour session on a pool table. Most of you know my passion for the game, or that I played in college, but you might not know just how physically taxing serious practice can be. I think I'm going to buy a pedometer to keep track of the distance I walk while simply circling the pool table several hundred times during a session. The results will be interesting to say the least. Perhaps, after I can walk for 45 minutes, or practice pool for an hour, I will be ready to jump on a stationary bike or elliptical machine for a few minutes. It will be a while until I can jog, but that is my own personal physical therapy ultimate goal. When I go back home to El Paso, I hope very much to be able to use our elliptical machine and go for a jog around the neighborhood each and every day, you know, to keep the doctor away.
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