Day + 161

Hi everyone-

once again, I'll start by saying thank you all for your messages of support. I can't get enough of them. So it was a rough couple of weeks that I wrote about in my last posting, but I'm happy to say that those days went away soon after that time and it has been smooth sailing since then. I have had a couple of tough days sprinkled in there which will always be the case, but this has been a good stretch of pain free days. Well, that's not all together true. Right now I am more sore then I have ever been in my entire life...and I mean from head to toe sore. So bad that I got out of bed this morning at 11:30am after waking up at 7:30am. Not because I wanted to lay in bed for four hours, but because I seriously couldn't physically get up. I was laughing at myself because I was in so much pain.

Now hold your sympathy because it has nothing to do with my Leukemia. For the first time in over a year I went and played 18 holes of golf with a couple of old friends. I figured I'd be sore, but had no idea it would be anything like this. I guess when you swing the club 118 times with muscles you haven't used in close to a year, you're asking for trouble. Yes, 118 times. To add on to my stupidity, I thought it would be a good idea to do some push ups later that night. That turned out to be a horrible idea because it just added on to the pain in my upper body. It is seriously even difficult for me to sit here a type this message right now. Not even kidding when I say this is by far the most muscle pain I have ever experienced. All I can do is laugh and be happy with the fact that I was able to get through a full round of golf. I'm really looking forward to getting out there again even though I stunk up the place.

From a medical perspective things still remain on track and couldn’t be better. My white blood cells are at 5.0 with my hematecrit jumping up a bit to 36.7 which interestingly enough shows what my endurance should be. Right now I’m at about 70% of my total endurance which is up a bit. My ANC is at 2.6 which is still good but a little lower than I like. ANC shows how susceptible I am to infection. It takes a little more into consideration than just straight white blood cells. On top of all that, my doctor continues to cut back on my immuno suppression medication which is a great sign. Those are the anti rejection drugs so that just tells me my doctors are feeling really good about the fact that my donors stem cells are going to stick with little or no fight from my body.

So it’s all good news my friends. Thank you again for staying up on my road to recovery. As you can see things couldn’t be better on the medical side…the important side, and I am feeling great, aside from my excruciating muscle pain, but again all I can do is laugh about that. Please take good care of yourselves and we’ll catch up soon.