Journey to a Cure

Hello friends and family, I hope everyone is having a fantastic start to the new year and optimistic that 2021 will be a much better year than 2020. Sitting here at Day +75, I am doing well overall.  My blood counts continue to fluctuate between a low and "close to normal" level.  I continue to be on way too many medications.  The exciting news is that Connie and I have a target date of February 10th for our return drive to Colorado. My doctor refers to the fluctuating blood counts and how I feel overall as "a battle raging between your original cells and the donor cells".  This is expected at this point with the recovery not expected to be a continual, straight line improvement.  There are constant ups and downs, with the overall trajectory looking very positive.  The +100 day mark is a key milestone since history shows that issues are most common during the first 100 days, but it is not uncommon for issues to arise in the first year, into year 2 and bey...

Happy New Years, It’s been a couple weeks since my last post, as it has been a mostly flat section of the process.  For the majority of December, I was fighting gout (big toes) and joint (knee) pain while my blood counts were steady but still below normal levels.  They find that joint pain post-SCT concentrates on prior problem areas.  In my case, that was centered on the right knee that took a beating over the years from skiing and running.  Knock on wood, but these issues are mostly under control as of the end of December and I’m happy to be recommencing my rehab.  My white blood cell count (and importantly ANC count) have stayed in the normal range for the majority of December, but the red blood cells and platelets continued to be well below normal.  Today, there was a good sign that these are both on an upward trend and I’m starting to feel it in the form of increasing energy. The news today is that I had my Central Venous Catheter line removed, marking...