One year Post Bone Marrow Transplant.

To those who have been checking to see if I have published something, I apologize that nothing has been put out for over a month. I have been contacted by two friends to see if I am doing okay or even if I am now back in the hospital. I have been doing fine. Here is an update. (This Hospital photo was during the bone marrow work, a year ago.)

It has been a year since my Bone marrow transplant. The transplant was necessary to destroy the cells that are at the center of the disease I have, Cardiac Amyloidosis. The transplant required I stay in the hospital for three weeks to recover and then go home with several checkups weekly back at a clinic. It was hoped that the chemotherapy I received would have destroyed all the bad cells. It did not. For the past year I have been on two different regiments of chemotherapy. The chemo has been adopted from treatment of Multiple Myeloma, a cancer similar to the Cardiac Amyloidosis I have. Both sicknesses are blood disorders that originate the bone marrow. Now that I am on my third course of chemo treatment there has been some progress. In two weeks I go back to Seattle for a comprehensive checkup to best understand the status of the disease in the bone marrow. I hope the disease has been kicked back to where it is no longer detectable. Then I can have a break from the chemo.

My physical health continues to improve. I am gradually getting stronger and I am experiencing less light headedness. There are some symptoms that are lingering, such as numbness in my feet and left hand, some issues with vision and a neuropathy in my right face (a slight crooked smile). In late January, due to a communication issue, I was off the chemo for two weeks and not the prescribed one week. At the end of the two weeks I felt like I could take on the world. It made me see that a lot of my slow recovery is compounded by the medications I am on.

At home I keep myself busy with keeping the house organized some cooking and time on the computer tracking down ancestors. My grandfather from Ireland was my last ancestor to arrive in the states. On April 9, will be the 100th Anniversary of his arrival at Ellis Island. My nephew will be in New York that weekend. He and his wife will perform some ceremony marking the occasion of the arrival of his Great Grandfather. I am greatful to him that his sacrifices allowed me to grow up in this country.