Good News

 This update is a little late, but wanted to share some good news! Since we've discovered and are treating my pneumonia my blood counts have begun to return to normal and recover on their own...looks like the pneumonia WAS the culprit. I have not not had to have a blood transfusion for the past 2 weeks and my hemoglobin is higher than it has been since this all started. That is all, good day!



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Update: Round 4 / Testing / Next Steps

Image
  Hello family & friends...it's been a while since my last post. There are 2 reasons for this: 1. The pneumonia was the cause of my issues post chemo (rounds 1 & 2) and the last 2 rounds (3 & 4) have been non-eventful and I've felt great (for the 1st time since last year) !   2. After my 4th round I was due for a lot of testing to determine 1) If the treatment is working and 2) based on that; will we move forward with my Stem Cell Transplant (SCT) after my 6th treatment.  A MOMENT OF TRUTH! I received all my test results yesterday 10/22 and I'm ecstatic to report that everything is moving as planned, the Dr.'s are happy. More specifically ( for the Dr. folks out here 😀 ), from my bone marrow biopsy there is no bone marrow involvement and from my CT scan my spleen is back to normal size, no new areas of growth and many lymph nodes are back to normal size (some still a little larger than normal but that could just be scarring - won't know for sur...
Read more

The Background Story

One day in early April (shortly after the COVID lockdown was put in place in Chicago) I went out for a run after work. About a quarter mile into my run I was extremely winded, and my leg and hip muscles felt as if I just completed a leg workout at the gym. I continued to push myself to run/walk 2 miles. Although I knew someone was not right, I just chalked it up to not working out for a few weeks and having a bad day. A few days later I tried another run with the same results. This went on for a couple of weeks with my shortness of breath and ability to push through declining. At this point (a few weeks in) I had also started to notice that I was becoming more fatigued throughout the day and even winded when bringing little Anya up the stairs from her crib (a mere 20lbs and 10 stairs!). As the time passed, I also started to develop a constant headache each day, it was very minor pain so again, I brushed it off as “allergy related”. As time progressed (probably about 1.5 mos in now) ev...
Read more

Stem Cell Transplant

Image
 Hello All.....Day +2 as I write here. I had a successful 7 days of chemo from the 12th - 18th, followed by 2 rest days and the big moment.....re-infusion of my stem cells (aka stem cell transplant).  Overall, I've had relatively light side effects (knock on wood). Here's a few pics of how the meds flow and the ridiculous amounts of fluid being pumped into my body. The stem cell transplant itself was anti-climatic, just like a blood transfusion, took no longer than an hour to complete. The cool parts about it were the cryo chamber they come in and the weird taste that hits your taste buds, due to the preservatives...tasted like garlic, creamed corn (and supposedly smelled like that to others in the room - Nurse / Cryo Guy / Maneesha). So now that the SCT is complete it's just a waiting game with my blood counts. I have to bottom out and as of now I'm pretty much there. I expect to have some platelet transfusions over the next couple of days and hopefully my counts will ...
Read more