So I haven't updated in a bit. I know, I know. I've been reminded :) Anyways, that's kind of a good thing. Everything is just status quo and "great" are the words at my weekly Thursday trips to DHMH. Here's what that looks like....
Each week I arrive and they draw blood for labs, then meet with Dr. Meehan and/or his NP colleague Beth Kimtis. We go over labs, an exam, and talk, questions/comments/changes. Sometimes it's just about the physical stuff, many times it's about the emotional ride that goes along with this too. We're really getting to know each other all pretty well, which allows them to treat ME. I love my doctors and have complete faith in them. Every other week, I get an IV of IGG (which is a human protein to promote the growth of what's going on). This is about an hour. Once a month, I take a medicine via inhaling, called pentamidine, which helps to fight pnemonia. Then there's the bone marrow biopsies. These happen at 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months, and 18 months. They sample the marrow from each hip, since Hodgkin is a traveling disease, and a sample of the bone as well. I've chosen to just have it done with local lidocain. Some pain, lots of pressure, but .... throw in some labor breathing and I'm all set. In, out, get it done. This gives them information of how the cells are engrafting and how to proceed with adjusting my immune supressing drugs I'm on. And then in another month or two we'll do a PET scan. My bone marrow transplant is different from my stem cell transplant in that it takes longer to do the job it's hoping to do. It needs to reestablish that there is in fact a different immune system and then work to fight off the disease. So .... it takes longer to reach the goal. The stem cell just blasted the crap out of me with chemo in hopes to kill the cancer and then rescue me for recovery with the healthy cells they'd extracted and frozen.
My counts all have been staying in the norm. When the kids have colds, my white cells dip down a bit (but still in the normal range). I explained it to someone like, all the lights are turned on at once, and that power surge makes them dimmer because they're being overused. Well, that's the same as my bone marrow, which is still quite sensitive. So, when sickness is around me, it works overtime to keep me from getting sick, so it has dipped down from 7.2 to 4.2 or so (range is like 4.0-9.0) and back up and back down .... This is, of course, my own personal analogy. My liver and kidney function tests from blood work looks great every week and has been consistent.
My energy and stamina has definitely grown over the past two+ weeks, and is consistent. That being said, I've been totally loving these milder temps (35-40) and fresh snow. I've been snowshoeing and x-country skiing over at the Watershed (500 acre conservation trails 3-4 miles from our house) with Ella or friends 5-6 times over these past two weeks, sledding out back with the kids, having dinners with friends again when families are all healthy, finally masking up and heading to some stores to do errands at less crowded hours, even hosting our annual class sledding parties before vacation for both Sam and Tucker's classes (I REALLY can't take any credit for that other than the hot chocolate and cookies. That's ALL the one and only, camp counselor Troy), and then .... falling asleep by 9:30.
I love visitors. Just pop in. I'm either here or not. If I'm here, we'll visit a bit, if I'm not, leave a note and say hi! I probably won't keep up with my weekly/not so weekly blogs, but more periodically. Mostly because, I'm feeling good and trying to feel normal. Also, to hold on weekly and recap, traps me to that feeling again of "I still have cancer, what am I feeling and going through now, wait, wait, and update" and ..... you know what ..... I"M READY TO MOVE ON. But ..... with that note too, I WANT to tell you all how I am and what I'm going through (vs. need to) - for many reasons - but mostly, because, you're all there for me .... and continue to be.
Lots of love - Pam
