Days 98-100

Well, I made it to day 100, but not without difficulty.

Tuesday, I had my regular clinic appointment and they kept me in the hospital for 2 days.

Lately, I have been having more bad days than good. Most of the bad days I have just been tired and overall just not feeling well, but I have had a few days where I have been really sick and vomiting. Tuesday was one of these days. When my doctor saw me on Tuesday and I had been sick to my stomach all morning he decided that he needed to run some tests. They started with an ECG and a chest x-ray which were both okay. Then I spent the rest of the day waiting around in the cancer clinic for there to be a room available upstairs for me.

The next morning they sent me to endoscopy to take a look in my stomach and do some biopsies to see if they can find out why I've been getting sick. I've had this procedure before and while they said they sedated me last time, I was fully aware of what was going on and extremely uncomfortable. I told the doctor this and he said he'd be generous with the sedatives this time. Well he wasn't lying. I have no recollection of the next two hours of my life, but I've been told I was quite entertaining.

Kendall sweet talked the doctor into letting me out of the hospital the next day since I had gone two days without getting sick and was eating and drinking well, so I am back home now. They hope to have my biopsy results by Tuesday when I go back to clinic (but I'm not holding my breath), however the theory is that I STILL have graft vs host disease. They expected it should be gone and had been weaning me off the Prednisone, but as the dose got lower the symptoms were getting worse... So this means that I am back on a high dose of Prednisone and will most likely have to stay on it for at least another six months... Along with the hunchback, puffiness and extra chins it has given me.  But I'm not dead yet!

Light the Night

I participated in the Light the Night walk last Saturday accompanied by my family and it was a great night! Thanks to the generous donations we received our team raised over $6000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada and were the 6th highest fundraising team in London!

Thank you so much to everyone who sponsored me. If you still wanted to contribute, the online site is still open. You can click HERE to go to my personal page to sponsor me for the walk.

ONLY 2 DAYS LEFT!!!

Please help by sponsoring me in the Light the Night Walk for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada.

On October 20th I will be walking with my family to benefit all 90,000 people affected by blood cancers in Canada.  All those that will be diagnosed every 34 minutes, And those, who every 72 minutes, will die.

Click here to sponsor me in my walk.  Every little bit helps.

Thank you.

Day 78

Another doctor's appointment yesterday, which means another day spent in a hospital waiting room. The good news this week is that my CMV level is negative which means the virus has gone dormant again and I don't have to have my IV anymore. So, next week the doctor is going to decide if I can have my hickman line taken out (attempt #2).

Although I have had the dose of my medications cut back, due to the length of time I have been on some of them the side effects are getting worse.  The prednisone (steroid) gave me "moon face" a couple of months ago, but now I've added "buffalo hump" to the list. Prednisone actually redistributes fat in your body to cause a round puffy face and a hunchback which I now have both of. Very cute. Another one of my meds, cyclosporine (immuno-suppressant) is now causing hair to grow on my face. Even cuter. In addition to all of this, it's been almost 3 months since the chemo stopped and I am still completely bald. So the only hair actually growing on my body is on my cheeks.

Only 17 days left to sponsor me for the Light the Night Walk... Please click here to sponsor me!