Thursday, December 04, 2003
Day +50 We are half way to the 100 day mark where John is being followed so closely.
Today was John's doctor's appointment and all his labs looked strong. His white cells have taken a dip, but Dr. Stein says this is normal due to some of the stem cells were already "differentiated" or more "grown up" than the others to be a white cell or a red cell. So those die off and then the "baby" cells that have grafted begin to grow and do there job.
Well, I have tortured you enough--Dr. Stein says as long as John stays healthy this week, next Thursday on our planned trip to return for Scott's graduation--John CAN STAY HOME!!!!
John is cautiously excited. If all goes as planned, I will drop John off at the airport Thursday and he will fly home. I will continue on and drive home with all of our stuff. John would rather fly, first because it will get him home faster, but also his knees and ankles have been hurting from the prednisone.
John and I have been continuing to catch up with every movie HE wants to see. A couple days ago I sat through the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and am forever traumatized. Also being the great mom I am I sat through the final installment of the Matrix which made no sense to me as I haven't seen the first or second. I may have to at least see the first one to help fill in the gaps so I can understand what the matrix exactly is.
John's next appointment is Tuesday. And unless something really interesting happens I will post again after we get the continued all clear.
Today was John's doctor's appointment and all his labs looked strong. His white cells have taken a dip, but Dr. Stein says this is normal due to some of the stem cells were already "differentiated" or more "grown up" than the others to be a white cell or a red cell. So those die off and then the "baby" cells that have grafted begin to grow and do there job.
Well, I have tortured you enough--Dr. Stein says as long as John stays healthy this week, next Thursday on our planned trip to return for Scott's graduation--John CAN STAY HOME!!!!
John is cautiously excited. If all goes as planned, I will drop John off at the airport Thursday and he will fly home. I will continue on and drive home with all of our stuff. John would rather fly, first because it will get him home faster, but also his knees and ankles have been hurting from the prednisone.
John and I have been continuing to catch up with every movie HE wants to see. A couple days ago I sat through the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and am forever traumatized. Also being the great mom I am I sat through the final installment of the Matrix which made no sense to me as I haven't seen the first or second. I may have to at least see the first one to help fill in the gaps so I can understand what the matrix exactly is.
John's next appointment is Tuesday. And unless something really interesting happens I will post again after we get the continued all clear.
Monday, December 01, 2003
Day 47 It seems hard to believe a week has already passed since John's release from the BMT unit. It went by very quickly and it is great to have John as a semi-constant companion. We do spend some time apart, but not much. We have been going to the movies, playing catch up, but it seems we didn't miss that much. Today we went and saw The Captain and Commander with Russell Crowe. I hate to admit while I found it noisy John and I both enjoyed the movie. Definitely needs to be seen on the big screen. The storm scene alone demands it. We also saw, The Haunted Mansion which was exactly what one would expect except they had some fairly scary visual effects of skeletons that surprised both of us since this movie was being marketed to young families and Gothika with Halle Barry. Gothika was so full of dumb holes and if you want to see something like this, but better go rent Stir of Echoes with Kevin Bacon. Much more convincing and frightening.
Thanksgiving was really wonderful. John made a juicy turkey, incredible macaroni and cheese, green beans and seasoned potatoes. Auntie Jennifer made pumpkin cheese cake (which she left with me, thank you very much, I now have to run extra) and I made stove top stuffing (which no one ate much of, can't seem to manage even that easy task) and green salad. Pop and Scott ate!
Pop left to return to the Bay Area on Friday. Time to get back to his job there. John really appreciated Pop pulling up all ties and being here while he was in the hospital. I know John is glad to have him home as his Mustang is giving everyone a hard time, but he will also be greatly missed. We still hope Jen can get another portal open on the blog for Jim to write about his impressions of Duarte. He had many an adventure with wild parrots.
I guess it is time to get to the Nitty Gritty. John's appointment went as expected, great! Platelets are still on the rise almost to 100. This means now that they have cut back some of the GVH drugs he is producing his own cells again (I should say his donors cells). Last time they typed John's blood it was making A + (the donor's type) instead of John's old type A-. The prednisone is slowly being tapered which brings up fears about GVH. John asked Dr. Stein as the dosage becomes less will the GVH show up in his intestines again or will it show up some place else? In other words have they cured him of the GVH in his gut with all the drugs? The answer is probably no, they will continue to cut back the prednisone until it begins to show up again. If it manages to stay away on a really low dose of steroids, great until his new immune system gets used to his body and quits attacking it. He still is at a fairly high risk of other manifestations of GVH, such a skin rash and liver problems. Lets hope John never experiences them.
Dr. Stein sent Dr. Wolf his discharge summary and hopefully will speak to him before John's next appointment on Thursday. We heard Dr. Wolf would like to take John back "ASAP" via Alicia (John's practice nurse for Dr. Wolf). John and I are not holding our breath for a early release, but it if fun to fantasize.
Interesting thing happened when John was getting his blood drawn by the nurse today. Nuse Holly had her BMT survivor pin (3 years post CML transplant). Turns out Holly is from Hercules, we took Anatomy together a Contra Costa College. What a small world.
Thanksgiving was really wonderful. John made a juicy turkey, incredible macaroni and cheese, green beans and seasoned potatoes. Auntie Jennifer made pumpkin cheese cake (which she left with me, thank you very much, I now have to run extra) and I made stove top stuffing (which no one ate much of, can't seem to manage even that easy task) and green salad. Pop and Scott ate!
Pop left to return to the Bay Area on Friday. Time to get back to his job there. John really appreciated Pop pulling up all ties and being here while he was in the hospital. I know John is glad to have him home as his Mustang is giving everyone a hard time, but he will also be greatly missed. We still hope Jen can get another portal open on the blog for Jim to write about his impressions of Duarte. He had many an adventure with wild parrots.
I guess it is time to get to the Nitty Gritty. John's appointment went as expected, great! Platelets are still on the rise almost to 100. This means now that they have cut back some of the GVH drugs he is producing his own cells again (I should say his donors cells). Last time they typed John's blood it was making A + (the donor's type) instead of John's old type A-. The prednisone is slowly being tapered which brings up fears about GVH. John asked Dr. Stein as the dosage becomes less will the GVH show up in his intestines again or will it show up some place else? In other words have they cured him of the GVH in his gut with all the drugs? The answer is probably no, they will continue to cut back the prednisone until it begins to show up again. If it manages to stay away on a really low dose of steroids, great until his new immune system gets used to his body and quits attacking it. He still is at a fairly high risk of other manifestations of GVH, such a skin rash and liver problems. Lets hope John never experiences them.
Dr. Stein sent Dr. Wolf his discharge summary and hopefully will speak to him before John's next appointment on Thursday. We heard Dr. Wolf would like to take John back "ASAP" via Alicia (John's practice nurse for Dr. Wolf). John and I are not holding our breath for a early release, but it if fun to fantasize.
Interesting thing happened when John was getting his blood drawn by the nurse today. Nuse Holly had her BMT survivor pin (3 years post CML transplant). Turns out Holly is from Hercules, we took Anatomy together a Contra Costa College. What a small world.
