From the Trenches

A quick update from my latest Seattle adventure, lazily written as a bulleted list:

• First thing Monday, I got a blood draw and had an IV placed for sedation for my bone marrow biopsy.  Although the IV had to be painfully reset several times, I was fairly excited at the prospect of having IV sedation for my biopsy.
• Counts were good, especially WBC which were 5.1, and neutrophils which were 4500.  All red blood cell counts continue to go down, although creatinine was also down to 1.6.  
• My doctors are all delighted with my progress, or rather, lack of further degradation over the past year. They were so impressed with my strength and range of motion that they said I could cancel my physical therapy appointment.  As my nurse practitioner said to me, with a raised eyebrow, "I know you already know what to do."  I'm assuming that means that although I'm doing okay, once-a-week walks will not suffice.  There was some loose talk about tapering off my meds, which will be discussed further on Thursday.
• My doctors also marveled at my skin sensitivity and head problems.  Removing my Ommaya port in the future was mentioned as a possibility.  Nothing can really be done about my skin in the meanwhile.
• My dentist told me she would allow me one cleaning this year.  I have to be careful though, because I can get pneumonia from it.  I can get pneumonia from pretty much anything, apparently.
• Had to open my big mouth and blab that I had never had IV sedation for a biopsy, so I was told I wouldn't have it this time then, either.  Just oral sedation.  IV is painfully taken out.
• Had a cafe tuna sandwich which is pretty much all I ate for the 3 months post-transplant last year.  I have been looking forward to one for 9 months...no other tuna sandwich is quite the same.
• Went for bone marrow biopsy, and had only oral and local sedation.  Biopsy unpleasant as always.  They also decided to take a skin punch out of my forearm to check for GVHD, a procedure which is exactly as gross as it sounds, and thus added to my growing collection of scars. 
• Later that day, I became reacquainted with my tuna sandwich from earlier, probably courtesy of the fentanyl.  I spent the rest of the day in bed with a bowl at my side.
• The following day, I had an eye exam that was largely uneventful.  No GVHD in the eyes.
• Today, I had a bone density scan, a chest x-ray, gynecologist appointment, and nutritionist consult.  There are no real results from these yet, except (sadly for you) the gynecologist.  Apparently, either I have a fibroid or polyp or something, or my ovaries somehow picked themselves up by their bootstraps and started working again.  I now have to have an ultrasound and stop my hormone replacement therapy to find out for sure.
• We took a free ride up the Space Needle and the day was clear and beautiful, but cold as ever.  
• We are enjoying 5-star accommodations at the Hunter-Cobb household during our stay.  I highly recommend them should you ever find yourself in Seattle.

I'll hopefully find out the rest of my results tomorrow.  I will also be getting my kid vaccines tomorrow.  Six of them I believe.  Seems that that could lead to all sorts of nastiness, but let's remain optimistic for Pete's sake.   That's all the energy I have for tonight. More later...

Love, Jessie

P.S.  3 question have been submitted so far.  Remember, I'll answer anything, no matter how inappropriate it may seem!