Day +138

High time I did an update.

My 90-day Chimerism test showed yet another drop, but a small one to 85.3%. This was still a great concern but Dr. Thyagu guessed that it was due to the swollen lymph node which was caused by a virus (Epstein-Barr). A biopsy backed this. So I was put on Rituximab (spelling?). That was an IV every Friday for four weeks. However, test showed it to be gone after two doses…and confirmed gone after three doses. The swollen lymph node in my neck had shrunk. Problem solved.

I do feel better now. Not quite normal, but getting there. I can handle six hours of sleep, but not on consecutive nights. Used to be I could do 5.5 hours for three straight nights before it started to hit me. I’ll get back there! I felt well enough to work on the Midseason Guide for my website, which put those short sleep hours to the test. I succeeded. And now I’m trying to ease myself back into regular work.

My weight overshot where I wanted it. I wanted to limit it to 210 because it will be so hard to get back there. But here I am at 214 (D’oh!). I was lazy with my workouts over the holidays, down to every three days and even then only doing half. And with the Guide I didn’t have time to bring that back up. Now that the Guide is out, I tried today to do a full workout, but had to stop it at 30 minutes. I’ll get there though.

The 120-day Chimerism showed a small rise to 88.9%, which is what we hoping for. We hoped that it had dropped as a result of the EB virus and once that was gone it would go back up. So far so good. Next week I get tested again.

My blood counts are all in the normal range, except one – Lymphocites, which fight viruses. But that’s down due to the Rituximab which apparently took out the Lymphocites for several months. But still – all the other blood counts were normal, which I think is a first for me in the last five years.

I’ll continue to keep you posted, thanks for following.