Six weeks post transplant, it's been a lonnnggg six weeks for both of us.
Just seen Prof Russell in clinic this morning. He has been away for the last few days so no result from Tuesday's Bone Marrow Aspirate yet. However he did say that the blood counts (red cells, white cells, platelets etc) are all stable and he is confident that the aspirate will be normal. It will now be looked at early next week so I have to wait till next Thursday - grrr. Patience David, patience!
The cytogenetics and the other fancy tests looking for MRD (minimal residual disease) and chimerism should be back in ten to fourteen days which is quicker than I expected but still means a bit of a wait - grrr. More patience David please!
My medication has been reduced. One of the immunosuppressants (MMF if your interested!) has been stopped and the other one, cyclosporin, reduced slightly. Overal this means 35 less tablets per week so I'm down to only 134 tablets per week, yippee! All in all I am making progress and can really feel the difference. I'm now doing more walking and more on the exercise bike. That said it takes me six or seven minutes to do two kilometres on the bike. It is progress which is the important thing but it is painfully slow - grrr. Patience David, patience!
Some of the other minor symptoms are lessening as well. There are a myriad of these and I try not to think about them. Sometimes though the brain just takes over. I found myself in the small hours of the night a couple of weeks ago counting them and I'd got to nearly thirty when I woke up enough to realise this was not helpful and rather depressing and persuaded myself to think of something positive. Fortunately I can usually get back to sleep fairly easily so no patience needed here!
*"Wait" Beatles, 'Rubber Soul' track 12
**"Can't Wait" Bob Dylan 'Time Out Of Mind' track 10
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