Until now there had been absolutely nothing new to report. I apologize for the lack of communication, the lack of information, however it was truly the same ole same ole - excruciating holding my breath & waiting.....
Far more infuriating and discouraging than one can ever ever imagine.
There was very brief chatter of a possible 3rd DLI knocked around. But after a pre-DLI Bone Marrow Aspiration, last week we received desperately needed encouraging results; "NO Residual Disease Present"! My cellularity is also up from 20% to 30%, (meaning cells are there...and they "seem" to be working ! ). And, all the marrow cells counted are indeed all my donor Bruce's karyotype (his DNA, his cells). NONE are mine. THIS is a Fantastic thing !! It is now apparent that Bruce's stem cells/my bone marrow are indeed slowly recovering from the 2nd burned-out round of chemo (in August) & are now growing to maturity the blood cells needed to sustain life.
In layman's terms: when my marrow & blood counts should be recovering at a normal rabbit's hip-hopping pace, my marrow & cells have now progressed from a snails pace to recovering at a Tortoise pace. This is Huge - considering my odd circumstances. There is still much more to recover. For instance there seems to be fledgling issues with my neutrophil counts (directly relating to my immune system ability). But folks...THIS is an overall improvement on a small grand scale ! Therefore, per Elaine atop Little Mt Si the other day.....
Bruce is Back ! ! ! !
Not only were the above results encouraging, but it seems that within the past week or two my white blood cell counts have been slowly but steadily increasing, and I have been holding both my red blood and Platelet transfusions longer that I had previously. This is indeed an indication that something is mending and moving forward with a tad more direction than previously.
Dare I say there is even talk of potentially returning to very part-time work eventually down the pipeline. Omgosh.
I also want to shout out, cry out, a profound thank you to every single one of you who donated to my desperately needed COBRA Medical insurance fund through the Go Fund Me page that was started. You know who you are my Lovely peeps ! And embrace you.
VERY shortly I will be sending out my annual group "ask" letter for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Cup Regatta. (those that just gave to my Go Fund Me page please feel free to disregard this 2015 Cup ask ). This year I have been appointed one of LLS's two Honored Skippers. Please support our fight against blood & other cancers, as well as the actual funding that goes directly to patients like me. They fund research, clinical trials, new drug treatments, including drugs used in other types of cancer treatments.This is not only the second time I've endured Leukemia, this is also the second time the LLS organization has helped me out directly by paying for the 1st part of my COBRA medical premiums with their LLS co-pay grant. Please enter the below into your browser to go to my LLS page at:
http://www.leukemiacup.org/pages/wa/sea15/KSouthard
Let's all collectively fight cancer together. And again I want to thank every one of you personally... for your support, for your kindness, for your encouraging words. xo
To Life. Live it Boldly !!!
