We waited a lot today. I’m finally off of isolation and back with everyone else, and that means waiting with everyone else. On isolation, I was actually taken early because they didn’t want me to stick around. It sounded bad, but it was really good. I’m still wearing the duck mask to be safe; people do not always think when they cough or sneeze.
So it’s Wed. and that means doctor visits not just for me but for most patients we seem to know. It was so busy today; the busiest I think I’ve ever seen. We had to wait in a long line just to get valeted. Then again long waits in the BMT room. In fact, we were taken to see the doctor first even though we were scheduled for labs first. The PA always comes in first and we had a pretty uneventful visit. My exam was quick and my blood work from Monday was good. Here’s the breakdown:
white blood cells – 9.93 (within range); hemoglobin – 11.8 (within range); platelets – 74 (decent, just don’t want to go below 40); magnesium 1.5 (right at the minimum); tacrolimus -11.5 (Last week I was at 8 and the doctor wanted me at 10, so she increased my pills. It worked.); and my liver and kidneys are doing well
There are other things, but those are the main ones or at least the ones I understand. What does it all mean? I’m doing really well right now, and for the first time, Dr. F had no reason to change my meds!
Dr. F had little to say today because the blood work, and so far all my test results, have been good. The “C” virus that 80% get is still under control and I’m on track for my 90 day suite of tests, which will likely be around March 15th. I’ll have to have another bone marrow biopsy (yuck, but I thought there was a 60 day one too and there’s not so yay), and they redo a lot of post-op tests like the pulmonary lung test and a few others I think. I’ll know more as we get closer.
Mom and I just had a few questions. Mom asked about my antifungal infusion and Dr. F informed us that I’ll be on it until I leave. She updated the order to last the full 90 days. It’s all good; the infusion’s purpose is to stop bacteria and infection. I used to get it everyday in the hospital too. Then, I had a couple of questions – all from Joel. #1: Did I need any further spinal treatments? I really didn’t want to ask that one because I was afraid of what Dr. F would say. So far, my spine has never been mentioned even though Dr. G back home seemed to constantly want to do spinal taps/chemo because I initially had cells there and he said that the spine is separate fluid and must be treated separately. Answer: Maybe in the future, but not now. Why? Dr. F said that right now it’s not needed, and could just cause complications with my BMT (I didn’t completely understand what complications exactly but it has to do with being post-transplant). Plus, the last few treatments done back home were all negative and my blood work is good so there are no red flags. However, Dr. F said that usually a person has 6 to 9 treatments on average; as a positive, she did say that it might not be necessary. #2: What percentage of donor cells are in my marrow? This was something Joel had been praying a lot about and he wanted to know where we stood. The bone marrow biopsy is supposed to show how much of my own marrow cells are left versus my donor’s. I forgot to ask last time, but turns out they didn’t have those results last Wed., but today they did so Dr. F printed it out for us. Answer: There are two types of cell analysis they look at and I’ll just quote them from the print outs. A – “The Post-Transplant analysis for CD33 sorted cell specimen from Jamie Quevedo revealed 100% donor cells and 0% patient cells. The sensitivity of this test is about 5% or less for a typical specimen.” This is exactly what we want. The donor needs to override and destroy my cells because let’s face it, mine were bad. B – “The Post-Transplant analysis for CD3 sorted cell specimen from Jamie Quevedo revealed 93% donor cells and 7% patient cells. The sensitivity of this test is about 5% or less for a typical specimen.” Maybe this seems decent, but it’s actually awesome. According to Dr. F, she wanted me to make it to 90% (which I have), but here’s the cool part. She informed us that reaching the 90% mark for this particular marker is the hardest to achieve and usually takes patients a year! I’m 57ish days post-transplant! It’s amazing! My doctor is super pleased with my progress and how I’m doing. She says I had a great donor. I really hope he wants to talk with me in a year; I already sent him a letter pre-transplant so I definitely need to write him soon about my post-transplant progress. I clearly remember being told that he sent a lot of blood and that the stem cells were highly concentrated. It was a small bag, only took about 15 minutes, and they still have two bags left on hold for me.
Great visit today. Thank you all so much for your continued prayers; it’s clear that God is answering them. Yay, God!
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Jamie, We are so HAPPY for you and just PRAISE GOD for answering
our prayers. Love ya – Lidia and Angel
“Yay God” is right! I want to jump and shout!!!! So happy for you. Our God is mighty awesome!
One good report after another.It is awesome to read, but even more spectacular to be a participant in the blessing.
Awesome news, praise God indeed!