Today was day 40 after the transplant. When I last left you, my intrepid reader, we were told that I was to go to the clinic today for my "discharge appointment". My discharge was all hinging on what Susan, the nurse practitioner, and Dr. Morris had to say about my condition. Susan was first...she came in and chatted with us for quite a while, and then asked if we had any questions. She answered all of our questions...here's some highlights. No, I can now go to restaurants, but at like three in the afternoon when no one's there. I can stop taking about half of the medications I am currently on. She said that she would leave the questions referring to the high school reunion and whether or not I'd need any more spinal taps. Shortly Dr. Morris came in and we asked him about those two things. Still a no on the reunion, because, (and he's right), the risk of getting a respiratory infection is still a concern. And, even colds are more severe with me...meaning they would last a lot longer and could easily progress to something more serious. And yes he wants me to have two more spinal taps. He thinks the last time I had one, the spinal headaches were from the chemo...kind of a chemical reaction of sorts. The next time though, he wants them to use a different kind of chemo, so hopefully I won't get the
horrible headaches.
After Dr. Morris signed off, we just had to meet with Erika, who was our original transplant coordinator. She just wanted to go over where we go from here. Here it is:
Since I've been discharged from the clinic, I'll now go back to my regular oncologist, Dr. Goldklang. We'll have to go once a month for blood work, and he'll arrange the spinal taps. We won't do those until after the 100 day mark, though. So, at the 100 mark, which is September 16th, we'll go back to the clinic to repeat the PET/CT scan, the bone marrow biopsy, blood work, etc. This'll let us know if we indeed got it all. Then we'll go back in 6 months for a recheck. Then 12 months, 2 years, then 5 years...you get the idea.
So that's it. No more going to the clinic everyday, no more bags and bags of fluids, no more stays in the bone marrow unit...good times! Speaking of the bone marrow unit, we went over for a visit today. We went over there because mom wanted to talk to the unit coordinator about making a donation since they were so good to us. Everyone was excited to see me and hear the good news, and it was good to see all of them too! So, I guess that's about it!! Another good news day!! Be looking for my book in the next couple of years!! haha....right!
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