At the clinic yesterday I got the results of my mixed chimerism basline tests. There are still some of my cells left, but no more than is considered normal. As I have said in the past, the more interesting test will be in 3 months time, when they can compare against this baseline to see how I am progressing.
I have stopped taking anti-sickenss medication, and I have not felt nauseous after almost a week. This is the first time I have successfully managed to stop (the pills are Ondansetron and Domperidone). I have had two previous attempts at this that ended in failure, but this time I am more hopeful as I have stopped taking the ciclosporin, which is a known cause of nausea.
My creatinine levels have dropped (which is good), and because I have stopped taking the ciclosporin, I no longer have to drink 3 litres of fluid per day. Oh joy!
After the clinic I had my pentamadine nebulizer, which I must have once a month until my lymphocytes recover (currently they are 0.3, and normal is about 1.5). Pentamadine is an antibiotic to guard against lung infections. Whilst waiting (one does a lot of waiting in hospital) I met another patient who had his transplant in February. He had lymphocytic leukaemia (as opposed to my lymphoblastic variety), but is the only other patient in the clinic I have met who had some kind of leukaemia. Unlike me, he had no serious infections during his chemo, but rather depressingly his blood counts tumbled a few months after transplant; I rather assumed that things just get better as time passes! They treated him by giving him more donor stem cells (which they had frozen from the original donation), and it seems to be doing the trick.
The phlegm still rumbles on. I gave them a sample to see if they can discover what is causing it, but they did not sound very hopeful of that. It is only a small annoyance, and I would say that I am now more fit and healthy than I was last December (when I got out of breath playing golf).
On Wednesday, Rose played in the National Golf Club Challenge final, for which the ladies section at our club qualified earlier this year. The competition supports the Seve Ballesteros Foundation (for cancer research) and it was played at The Shire golf course, which is the only course in England to be designed by Seve. Rose and her team came second, so congratulations to them.
I am looking forward to the rugby world cup final, and I will be supporting France (even though they did not deserve to beat Wales) - allez les Bleus!
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