Day + 41

Hi everyone. I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving. I know I did and it definitely had a different meaning this year given everything that has happened. It has always been my favorite day of the year for the simple reason that you can eat great food, drink, nap and watch football all day. And of course the Cowboy game just makes the day that much better. But before this year, I could never really answer the old, "What are you thankful for?" question. I don't mean to sound like I've taken my whole life for granted, because I haven't. I'm always thankful for the place I live and for the family and friends I have. It's very easy just to shrug that question off and say yeah, life is good and I'm grateful for it. But now, everything gets put into a different perspective and I find myself deeply thankful for everything, on a far different level then before. I could very easily be dead if not for the actions and support of many people around me. That is a very odd feeling to get your arms around. All day long I found myself drifting into weird reflections of the first hospital when I was sick but didn't know what was wrong yet, then going back to the conversation with my doctor where she told me off my diagnosis, then to my battles with the chemo and later the radiation, then thinking of the non-stop support from my family, old and new friends, doctors and nurses. The visits, the thoughtful cards, books and gifts to help me take my mind off of the reality and of the situation. All of those things were going in and out my head all day long. And it's funny, I think the only reason it was all hitting me all at once is because it was Thanksgiving. I guess that's the whole point of the day. And please don't think that all of these thoughts made it a bad day for me, because it didn't. It really did quite the opposite and made it not only a great and happy day, but a special day...and the Cowboys beating the hell out of the Seahawks keeping them in the playoff hunt didn't hurt either.

Ok, enough of that babble. Let me update you on how things are going with my recovery. So far, everything remains on track and the doctors are still very happy with everything they are seeing. My blood counts are still hovering right in the range they should be and I have been feeling great. Things have just gotten better and better for me since that first really bad week of me getting discharged from the hospital. My nausea is gone for the most part and food has been tasting really good. Because of that, my weight has been going up as well. I have gained about 7 pounds since I’ve been out and that will continue to go up for another 15 pounds or so. That should get me to my target healthy weight. I’m still walking just about every day and while I’ve been in Orange County I have been able to walk with Floyd which has been really nice.

On the cancer side, all is good as well. Every 30 days since the transplant, I will be getting a bone marrow biopsy done to determine 2 things. 1, are there any cancer cells in my body. 2, how much of my immune system is mine and how much is my donors? I got the results from the first part yesterday. My body, blood and bone marrow as of now is completely cancer free and has been since I entered remission. They were even able to do a deeper dive into some of the trouble areas where the cancer was more prevalent and grouped together. In those areas as well, they saw no signs of cancer. As you can imagine, it is a pretty stressful time between the test and the results, but to hear those words that you’re still in remission is pretty unbelievable. I won’t get the results of the second part until late this week or next week, but what I’m looking for is 100% of my immune system to be that of my donor. That means that it would have fully taken over my body and pushed out my own faulty immune system. We’ll see what the results show.

For now, I’ll continue to take my 35 pills per day, walk as much as I can and eat as healthy as possible. Seems to be working so far. The only downside of this week is that my girl is in NY until Sunday. That's alright, she'll be back soon and all will be right. That’s it for now. Take care everyone and thanks for reading.