Day +65

Had a clinical visit at City of Hope today.  Great news!  ALL of my markers for complete graft came out at 100% again (a couple more markers showed 100% even from last testing). 

There were a few issues with my regular lab work from today.  My platelets are continually coming down (not good), white counts were low (again), and a couple other markers were troublesome.  Good news on that is it's medicine related.  My bone marrow is working perfectly.  It's producing everything it's supposed to, but the medicines are still chewing up the cells.  So they discontinued a medicine, adjusted others.  I expect by my next clinical appointment on Thursday that my numbers will be going back up again.

I'm still weak, so standing from a sitting position is very difficult.  Also, climbing my stairs at home has become almost an impossible task.  I can't wait until these medicines flush completely out of my system.  I'll start feeling human again.

My belly looks like I'm eight months pregnant, and it's hard as a rock.  I have a scan scheduled for this week to see if the abdomen is swollen from GVHD or if there is a fluid buildup outside my organs in my stomach and intestines.  In the meantime, the doctor has given me a specialized diuretic that is supposed to clear the fluid if that is what it is. 

He didn't want to wait for the imaging test results, so he started me on them today.  I started taking the specialized diuretic today, and I can actually feel it working physically.  So I think the scan is only going to confirm that I have fluid buildup outside the organs.  If that's the case, I'm finally going to have relief from this bloated, painful belly.

I got a call today from City of Hope that I need an infusion of imunoglobulin.  It's a crucial part of fighting bacterial infections in your system.  My levels on that were low today apparently, so I'm going in for infusion this week.

In any case, each day brings its own challenges.  I have to take this one day at a time (not easy for me).  I should be out of the woods with this chapter pretty soon.