The Thomas family

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

Friday 24 June 2011

Result!

Just a quick update as it will be a long time until my next hospital visit.

I was called by the hospital with the results of my latest blood test to detect the level of leukaemic cells in my blood, and it came back as 0.04% which is brilliant!  I was told that the sample was not very good and they will redo the test at my next visit but this is still very reassuring, considering that I was at 30% when I went for transplant.

I have also heard back from my GP with the results of my cholesterol test.  It is rather curious as my total cholesterol has gone up a bit and is slightly over the acceptable level, but the increase is entirely accounted for by good cholesterol (HDLs I think) which has trebled over the past 2 years!  Therefore I don't have to give up cheese!  Yippee!

For those of you tracking my friend Michelle's progress, she had her first course of chemo and stayed in hospital for 6 weeks.  She then only managed a couple of days out of hospital before going back in to start her second course of chemo.  This is stronger than the first and making her feel rather sleepy but she was in good spirits when I saw her on Monday, and is looking as though she has been on holiday as the drugs are giving her a great tan!  Hopefully this course will get things sufficiently under control for them to proceed with her own transplant. She will have a "full" version, rather than the reduced intensity "mini" that I had.  In the meantime I am praying that all goes well and she doesn't suffer too much with the treatment.

I'm now off for a couple of weeks of scenic walks and too much food and drink - just what the doctor ordered!  I'll try to post a picture of me with my new curly hair when I get back.  No sun tan though, I have to use factor 50 all the time!

Tuesday 7 June 2011

Boring!

Sorry to have to post a boring blog but nothing is happening!  I went for my appointment yesterday and my counts all looked fine so, no change!   I don't have to go back for 6 weeks!  This is, to be honest, partly because I will be away for a fortnight over what would have been my next appointment in 4 weeks time, but clearly they are not worried about me.  It may seem strange to be taking a holiday when I have been "on holiday" for the past 7 months but, of course, the family haven't and we are celebrating the end of A levels for Corina and GCSEs for Tania.

I did raise the thorny subject of returning to work yesterday and will be progressing that line over the next few weeks.  Fortunately the people at work plan to let me in gently as I do not yet know how much energy I will have or, for that matter, how much power of concentration.  The consultant did warn me that both may be severely limited to start with!

Michelle is doing fine but getting fed up with sitting in hospital waiting for her neutrophils (a type of white blood cell) to recover from her chemo, so that she can have a few days at home.  We were celebrating them going from 0.1 to 0.2 last Friday (lots of high fives!) so hopefully they continue to go up to the critical 0.5 she needs at a good rate.

Well, that's it for now. I'll try to post once of twice before my next appointment to keep you updated on things.