Day 182
I went to my clinic appointment yesterday (now normally biweekly) and things went well. I noticed that I feel good now when my blood labs show nothing is worse. Compared to 2 weeks ago, all my blood counts were up slightly, my liver enzymes were very close to the same (a bit high), and my creatinine level was fine (meaning my kidneys are doing OK). While the hemoglobin is up a bit, which is good, it is still below normal of 14 and I still get winded easily. Then again, maybe I’m just horribly out of shape.
WBC – 3.6, up from 3.2
Hgb – 11.2, up from 10.2 (and the PA says it’s the highest it’s been since November)
Plt – 242, up from 221
So my meds are all staying the same, and since I’m very close to six months post transplant, I need to have another bone marrow biopsy and aspiration done (woo hoo). It is scheduled for next Friday.
I asked Dr. T if he considered my GvHD to be at Level 1 and he said he did. I asked him if I would know if the GvHD in my liver got worse and he said that normally I would not know unless it got much worse. This is part of the reason I was glad to see my liver enzyme levels were no worse than 2 weeks ago. I asked him if the reason he wanted to see some GvHD was because if meant there was a much smaller chance of relapse of the disease (essentially leukemia) and he said that was the reason. He said the odds of cure are much better if there is some GvHD because it means my new immune system was indeed doing what it is designed to do and that is to attack anything which is not it. In addition to fighting its new host, it is probably also killing off any remaining diseased bone marrow, which he says can definitely hang around in quantities too small to detect in the blood or in the marrow. So once again, it will be good to get those chimerism studies back a couple of weeks after the biopsy/aspiration and still see 100% donated bone marrow.
So I’m feeling pretty good about my current status. I’m feeling OK, I’ve got some GvHD, and it doesn’t seem to be getting worse. Now if I could just hurry things along some.
Love,
Justin
WBC – 3.6, up from 3.2
Hgb – 11.2, up from 10.2 (and the PA says it’s the highest it’s been since November)
Plt – 242, up from 221
So my meds are all staying the same, and since I’m very close to six months post transplant, I need to have another bone marrow biopsy and aspiration done (woo hoo). It is scheduled for next Friday.
I asked Dr. T if he considered my GvHD to be at Level 1 and he said he did. I asked him if I would know if the GvHD in my liver got worse and he said that normally I would not know unless it got much worse. This is part of the reason I was glad to see my liver enzyme levels were no worse than 2 weeks ago. I asked him if the reason he wanted to see some GvHD was because if meant there was a much smaller chance of relapse of the disease (essentially leukemia) and he said that was the reason. He said the odds of cure are much better if there is some GvHD because it means my new immune system was indeed doing what it is designed to do and that is to attack anything which is not it. In addition to fighting its new host, it is probably also killing off any remaining diseased bone marrow, which he says can definitely hang around in quantities too small to detect in the blood or in the marrow. So once again, it will be good to get those chimerism studies back a couple of weeks after the biopsy/aspiration and still see 100% donated bone marrow.
So I’m feeling pretty good about my current status. I’m feeling OK, I’ve got some GvHD, and it doesn’t seem to be getting worse. Now if I could just hurry things along some.
Love,
Justin
2 Comments:
We would all like things faster, sooner, etc.
It's all in God's time not ours.
Hard lesson to learn.
Sounds like so far, you've had pretty near an ideal recovery, even though you've occasionally had some disappointment. We're with you all the way.
Love,
Wayne
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