The Thomas family

The Thomas family
From left to right, Tania, Dave, me and Corina

Tuesday 15 February 2011

A particularly good day

Hi all, apologies for not posting yesterday, I just didn't get around to it.  It was a pretty full day for me.

First of all I went up to London early and met up with Dave for a Valentine's lunch.  Getting there was fun as the driver was given the hospital address rather than the restaurant address (even though they were happy for me to go to the restaurant) so we went sailing past Soho until I pointed this out.  Then he thought I said Fleet Street instead of Frith Street so we passed Soho again!  Fortunately I had plenty of time and finally arrived at the appointed restaurant at the appointed time!  Dave had requested a quiet corner which we got.  The lunch was lovely.

Then Dave and I walked to the hospital as it was such a nice day and we needed to walk off the enormous meal.  It was about a mile and a half which is probably my limit at the moment.

At the hospital I had 14 vials of blood taken, I think that is a record, as 8 were for something called Chimerase testing.  This is an important test as it measures how much of my blood is my old stuff and how much the donor's.  If there is too much of mine they give me a "top-up" transfusion from the donor to help things along. 

Then I saw my consultant, Emma. My rash has been behaving quite well so no need to go back on the steroids and I was taken off one more drug, for my stomach as I have not been having any problems there.  I am now down to 4 tablets in the morning and 3 in the evening which is quite manageable.  And I have been signed off for two weeks!  So I won't have to go in next Monday unless something comes up.

Finally, the results from the missing blood had miraculously appeared and they were very good news.  My last 2 tests of this sort (pre transplant) showed the percentage of leukhaemic cells in my blood as 30% and 45%.  The results for 17 January were 1.7%!!!  This is largely down to the donor immune system mopping them up which is brilliant news.  Since we thought the blood had been lost they took more last week so I'll have a second result in a week or so's time which hopefully will back this up.

Then I had my monthly pentamadine nebuliser before heading home during the rush hour and getting back at 6.15m.  For anyone who doesn't know what a nebuliser is, the best thing to think of is the caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland, although there is nothing recreational about pentamadine!  I have this to protect me from an opportunist infection known as PCP (a form of pneumonia).

So a pretty full day but lots of good stuff.  My next appointment is 28 February but I will try to do an update in the meantime, especially if I have anything to report.

All the best.

4 comments:

  1. Glad it went ok at the hospital and glad you enjoyed yesterday with David for Valentines Day.

    Mum is doing well and resting as much as she can. I am taking her to Keep Fit tomorrow morning so that she can watch us all as it is her birthday tomorrow then I will get her home and she will get ready to go out with dad for lunch. She is walking with and without sticks and it has only been a week so she is doing extremely well.

    Be in touch with you soon to arrange something with you to meet up for a drink and chat.

    Take care hun

    lol

    Katrina xxxxxx

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  2. Hi Katrina,

    I'm so glad that your mum is doing so well and that she managed to get out of hospital and is up on her feet again so quickly. I hope she has a really good birthday tomorrow.

    Enjoy your Keep Fit, I look forward to when I can do that again!

    Speak soon,
    Cathy x

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  3. Great news about the leukhaemic cell count and glad you had a lovely Valentines day. Your next visit is on my sister's 60th birthday and just before Corin's birthday so that will be good! Bon courage Love Lynn and Dale xx

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  4. I'm so happy everything is going to plan. Looking forward to seeing you soon. I don't think we will make next week so hopefully sometime in March. Will drop you an email next week. Take care Nicky xx

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