Final Exams

At some point they will discharge me. Of that I'm sure. In preparation they are putting me through the steps I went through just prior to my admission to the hospital for the transplant. Blood work, blood work and more blood work. An opthamologists exam where no fewer than 4 people peered into my eyes. I can only wonder what deep dark secrets they saw. The exam was intended to look for a couple of problems: changes in vision and graft vs. host disease (gvhd). Neither was present. Similarly my pulmonary function was normal and there is no evidence of gvhd in the lungs. This surprised me given that the chemo regime I received in Little Rock (Super Beam plus) is very hard on the lungs as is all chemo. I figured this 3rd transplant would do my lungs in. Not so. Everyone is quite pleased that I haven't had gvhd as it can be quite nasty. Essentially its Mike's cells attacking any or all of my cells or organs. His cells would see my cells or organs as foreign and go after them. I'm not out of the woods yet as it can hit anytime in about 3 years from transplant. But most often it occurs in the first 100 days, which is why they want to keep me here for that 100 day period.

And then there are the 17 pounds I've lost. Nothing compared to the 50 I lost in Arkansas, but more than I expected. Thankfully Dr. Rifkin beefed me up with steroids before this transplant so I had the weight to lose.

Susan and I had to attend a discharge class to teach us what to do and not to do once I get home. Although we've been through this twice before we have to exercise more caution because this was an allo transplant and I am on immunosuppresants. Much as I want to jump back into the full flow of life I guess I have to proceed slowly.

We see the doctor on Tuesday and should have a better sense of when I can return to Denver.

Love to all,

Dan