Day 36

As you may have noticed, my main blogger has returned to his life in El Salvador, so keeping you updated is now up to ME. I'll do my best, but don't worry if updates are less frequent.

I'm sending all my friends and family big hugs from me - the cards, care packages, phone calls, emails, and prayers for healing are invaluable as I continue to move through this process. The doctors say that this phase in SCT recovery is a hard one emotionally because it tends to drag on and on. I definitely understand what they mean about that! Once again, however, I'm stopped short in my complaining.  When the results from the Day 30 tests came in, the news was just short of miraculous.

• No sign of MDS in the bone marrow - zero, none!
• My T-cells are 100% donor produced, which often doesn't happen until Day 100 and might not occur before a full year has passed!
• My B-cells are 80% donor produced, which is well on the way to 100%.
• No chromosomal abnormalities were found!

If I didn't feel so crummy most days, I would have jumped for joy. As it is, I had to settle for feeling thankful and hopeful that such good early signs mean a successful transplant.

It has been fun this last couple of weeks having friends become my caretaker. Since I wrote about Jennifer spending the night several weeks ago, Pat P. was here for 2 days before my college friend Emy came for 10 days. Both gals cooked up some culinary delights, and my jaws are a little sore from all the talking!  While Emy was here, she was treated to some good days with Wanda and a few not so good days. She was a real trooper, and it was great to have time to catch up, even though the circumstances for our visit weren't the best. I was glad for Emy that she was able to see a couple of friends with VA roots who live in the Nashville area while she was babysitting me.

Pat cooks in the apartment's gourmet kitchen.

Emy and her dog Rosie at the park.