April 22, 2009 11:15 PM 36 days to go

It was a great day at the clinic today. My counts were right on target indicating that the transplant is working as it should.

Last week, I was wondering why they took so many tubes of blood. Well, unbeknownst to me and my doctor they did another chimera test. The results showed that my bone marrow is now 100% that of my donor and the T-Cells are now 89%. These counts are up for 98% and 75% respectively. The good thing about these ever-increasing numbers is that it appears that I will not need another bone marrow biopsy in the near future.

Of course, the concern is now that graft vs host disease could take hold. However, given the fact that there are currently no symptoms that this is occurring, the staff at Dana-Farber thinks that it is less of a possibility. That was also a bit of good news.

We made appointments through the end of May which will complete the weekly visit regimen(and the 100 days) should all continue to go as it has. Likewise, we talked about having my Hickman catheter removed on the 29th of May. This will be a major milestone. The catheter will have been in for almost 7 months at that point in time and it will be nice to be rid of it.

At the conclusion of the once a week visits, the schedule changes to once a month for the remainder of the 12 month period. Most significantly, at that time, they will begin to wean me from the immuno-suppressants. The nurse practitioner said that they would not monkey with the immuno-suppressants at this point because things are going so well.

One interesting little tidbit did surface today. At the conclusion of the 12 month period I was told that they would begin to give me shots. When we questioned what kind of shots they were to be, we were told that they would be my "baby shots". That's right! I have to have all my baby shots once more! So I guess that when they say that the transplant is a kind of rebirth - they really mean it! The appointment interval will again be readjusted at this time to once every 2 months.
There is a downside to the 12 month milestone - they will schedule another bone marrow biopsy. What fun!

Boy, it's so easy to write an entry on Wednesdays...

Bob