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February 13, 2007 , Day 119
Friends,
More good progress this week, and another good but sobering doctor visit today. I want to remind everyone that I am only sending out an update about once a week. If they come more often, it usually means something bad has happened, so don't worry, be happy!
Like last week, we have been doing lots of running around. I have been doing a lot of walking. I have not been using my walker at all, and frequently I don't use my walking stick. I had a HARD workout on my bike trainer on Sunday. I got my heart rate up to 90% of maximum and still felt good. I have started to eat meals at the table more often, because I can sit long enough to eat without getting winded. For a while there, I could do aerobic exercise just by sitting. Fortunately, that is no longer the case. Now I have to walk a lot or cycle or climb stairs. I have been doing virtually all of the driving now, which takes a load off Menchie. Today I had some real firsts. I don't want to get too personal, but I took a shower without sitting for the first time in months. I also convinced Menchie to let me go to the store alone to get some items we needed for breakfast. Saturday, we went to Fiesta Island for the Tahoe team's first ride. Menchie also rode her bike there, while I took lots of pictures of everyone on the team. I even did some home improvement work, completing a couple of small projects that needed to be taken care of. Tonight, Menchie and I had our Valentines day dinner at a Thai restaurant. That was fun.
My doctor visit was OK. They are still pleased with my progress, but they are starting to get more concerned about my blood counts. They ordered a bunch of virus tests to see if something is going on. The doctor ran through a list of possible causes for my blood counts to go down as most of them did today. He said it could be a virus called CMV, but that was negative last week. I am still worried about the BK Virus, but when I expressed that, my doctor said that there was no treatment they could give me for that anyway, so don't worry about it. They are going to check for a virus in the Herpes family which could be causing problems. Another remote possibility is another relapse, but he didn't think that was likely since my biopsy just three weeks ago was clear. He also said that my transplant might just be less robust than we might want. He said that some times, a second transplant never fully recovers to normal levels. I also got a Pentamadine treatment today before my appointment. When my doctor was listening to my lungs I was wheezing a little bit. I told him I had just had Pentamadine and he just shrugged the wheezing off. My Pentamadine treatment went pretty well. I was able to finish it completely for the first time without my heart rate going through the roof, although it did start going up at the end.
On the medical front, I convince the doctors to let me take one less dose of Budesonide daily, so we don't have to get up in the middle of the night to take it. That will help with our sleep deprivation. They let me take my Blood Bank arm band off. No more wrist bands! Again, the first time in months I have not had a wrist band on! My doctor wants me to start taking a vitamin supplement. Hopefully we can find one I am not allergic to.
Lab results: Counts seem to be headed down to me, although only two are down, but they are the most important ones to me. I really want my platelets to come up so I can start riding my bike and doing other normal things like brushing my teeth and shaving! We don't have some of the lab results that we would like to have, like my creatinine levels, but here are the blood counts.
Lab Results |
Blood Cell Type |
Normal Low |
01/23 |
01/29 |
01/30 |
02/06 |
02/13 |
|
| WBC |
4.5 |
3.8 |
3.1 |
2.9 |
4.6 |
3.5 |
| RBC |
4.3 |
2.59 |
2.69 |
2.51 |
2.48 |
2.48 |
| HGB |
13.9 |
9.2 |
9.6 |
9.1 |
9.2 |
9.4 |
| PLT |
130 |
18 |
24 |
21 |
32 |
23 |
Happy Valentine's day!
Ted and Menchie
tw@wilcoxent.com
mench@wilcoxent.com
www.wilcoxent.com
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