Things are running a bit slowly at the clinic today, and I had to wait a long time to see the doctor. My blood results were good: haemoglobin 13, platelets 199, neutrophils 3.3 and lymphocytes 0.9. They took blood for the next chimerism test today; if there are still any of my host T-cells left they will treat me with more mature lymphocytes.
I am currently waiting for what I hope to be my last nebulizer. They took blood for a "lymphocyte subset" test that gives a breakdown of what type of lymphocytes I have (there is a good article on Wikipedia about lymphocytes if you are interested). If the number of helper T-cells is high enough then I will not need any more nebulizers!
I learned today that the recovery rates of the different white cell components after a transplant are radically different. Neutrophils recover quickly, T-cells more slowly and B-cells very slowly. To compensate for my low white count, I take antibiotic and antiviral medication twice daily, and I will continue doing so for 5 years! This is how long it takes for the B-cells to recover completely. I will be very glad to still be here taking them four years from now!
No comments:
Post a Comment