Sunrise

10/14/23

It’s been a relatively noneventful past couple of weeks with a notable exception. To recap:

· I haven’t been in the hospital;

· My car was released from the body shop;

· I continued to stay out of the hospital;

· The “stuff” I left in the back of my car which was removed (why?) was successfully retrieved from the body shop;

· Checking my surroundings, I’m still not in the hospital;

· I had a bone marrow biopsy Monday, October 9. I didn’t love the biopsy (I think they forgot to read the memo about me being sedated during the procedure and it was a little rougher than in the past);

· While I went to the hospital for the bone marrow biopsy, I got to walk out of the hospital after the biopsy was over;

· My immune system has pretty much recovered since the last chemo round, and I’m released out into the wild. You might even see me out and about;

· I physically went to work last Tuesday and goofed around at work instead of at home. I billed exactly .4 hours that day; and

· We got the results from the biopsy and my doctor used the words “hematologically in full remission.”

I’m not entirely sure what hematologically in full remission” means, but I can tell you a little about what that phrase means for me. First, yes, it’s good news! I don't want that to go unnoticed. Second, I can proceed to the bone marrow transplant without having to pass go again. I even got a phone call from Johns Hopkins Hospital on Friday warning me that they will start to schedule tests and appointments for me, and I should be on the look-out for those emails. Third, the biopsy’s pathology report shows 1% of the (bad) blast cells. The doc said with that low number, they can’t even tell if the blast cells are leukemia, or if they really are normal immature blood cells. It could actually be 0%, it’s just not significant once we are this low. (I needed to be under 5% to qualify for the transplant.)

Readers, this is great! We aren’t sure of any of the timing with Hopkins, but we suspect the transplant itself is probably 3-6 weeks away. John and I have some testing to do in Baltimore, John’s got some growth hormones to ingest prior to his donation, and I’ll have 5 days of chemo immediately prior to the transplant. The timing will also depend on who else they have in the pipeline and how quickly their current patients have moved through the process. With the timing, I might need to get some “maintenance” chemo to keep the blast numbers down, but it would be out-patient.

For the transplant, David and I will need to be Baltimore residents for 60-90 days. The length we need to be close to the hospital depends on how quickly my white blood cells recover. We’ll likely be in an apartment right behind the hospital, although we are looking at some other options. With the timing, it looks like we’ll be enjoying a Baltimore Thanksgiving and Christmas! (It should be fun, I’ve had some good times in Charm City, and David got his doctorate there. I’m just sad the Orioles are out of the playoffs and Lamar Jackson seems to be throwing for a team other than one named the Ravens right now. Do we decorate for the holidays? Are we required to use Old Bay in everything? I hear they are getting rid of the Harbor mall buildings, I loved those back in the day. The boys and I got trapped in that submarine in the harbor once. True story. I really blather in these blogs, don't I?)

It’s all very exciting after such a long process to get to this point. I’ve got to be honest with you though, it looked pretty dark there for a while. After we got the pathology report this week I went back and looked at old pathology reports and they were not good. Emotionally over the past months I’ve put up a wall to protect from the bad results and disappointments that seemed to come over and over again. It’s hard to process that I’ve got good news now! Did you say I’m in a remission? Where is the trap door? Where is the “but, …”? What is it that I don’t understand? See above, I am still terrified they will put me back in the hospital if I make a wrong step or have a funny cough.

I still treasure your texts and cards and well-wishes and care. The prayers and hope expressed by so many have helped me through the dark days and nights. I’m sure we have dark times ahead, but the sun has greeted me every morning with the promise of a new day.

Archival photo attached, I haven't taken any good pictures of me recently and they tell me pictures drive the blog traffic. Unfortunately for you, I’ve just been taking pictures of the dog doing something silly, which are for my other blog “Silly Things My Dog Does.” (That's family only.) For the attached photo, I was in preschool. My mother made my cute outfit; hair by me.