Another fortnightly clinic appointment for Karine and me. It is a very friendly clinic and as usual we bumped into a couple of fellow sufferers so a good opportunity to catch up and to share experiences. It's a clinic exclusively for Stem Cell transplant patients so the faces of the regulars are quite familiar. The department does over 130 transplants a year - perhaps more now, I'm not sure - so there must be a lot of patients who don't attend as regularly as we do, hopefully that will be us in a little while. As well as seeing the consultant the transplant coordinator nurse is always around and is available for help and advice - nothing is too much trouble for her. We also see the dietician quite often but as my weight slowly increases this is becoming less frequent. It is rare to be kept waiting very long. The whole trip to the hospital usually takes about an hour and quarter from leaving home to arriving home again. All in all an excellent service.
From the AML point of view everything has been going very well in recent weeks, the GvHD seems to be under control and the awful fatigue that was occurring for a day or so most weeks has disappeared. The blood counts having fallen a little in the last month, but I'm not aware of this. Whether this is a trend or just part of the normal variation that occurs in any biological system is too soon to say.
One of the steroids, prednisolone, has been reduced to 3mg which is a really low dose. I'm still on different steroid, the steroid foam treatment and ciclosporin, but am slowly heading in the right direction. The weekly tablet load is now just below 150 - much better than the 250+ of a few months ago! - and there is the prospect of this number continuing to gradually fall in the coming months. I've been here before - last September I was within a few weeks of coming off ciclosporin and not a steroid in sight and then GvHD happened.
Meanwhile I hobble about the place, the Achilles tendon isn't really improving very much yet. Karine and I had a wonderful weekend on the Yorkshire Cumbria border with a group of friends. The weather was perfect - warm and sunny. Everyone went for walks and visits and I enjoyed the garden and the view! It was a great boost to be away for a few days.
Next week we are going to visit my uncle and aunt halfway down the M1 - just for a day - we haven't seen them for two years - two outings in two weeks - wow!
*Bob Dylan - "Blonde on Blonde" - track 10
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