The Results

The results are in and they are good.  I am still in remission, with no leukemia detected. My chimerism is still about the same, 100/75, so we are going to begin tapering off the Prograf now to boost the numbers.  That will help my kidneys be happy. 

Happy thought for the day:

Tapering off now, instead of Day 180, makes me happy since it is about 70 days ahead of "schedule." That gets me out in public and gardening sooner too.  My taper schedule ends April 1st, no fooling. Then I will have a month of isolation left just to make sure my immune system gets a boost before being bombarded. I will still have to be careful not to be around sick people even after that. In April I will start getting re vaccinated like a newborn.  I got my brother's stem cells, but they do not have the immunity memory a white blood cell has.  It will be a drawn out schedule so as to not tax my system all at once.

CT scans show all normal organs. The kidneys and some lumps, but nothing to be concerned with. My blood numbers look good, but I am slightly anemic. Getting off prograf will help both of those.

The next thing to look for is chronic graft vs host disease (dry mouth, dry eyes, rash). Typically, it would show up within a year of transplant. So by October 17, 2015 I should be safe.

We discussed when I can get back in public and back to work. We are on a "wait and see" schedule. But by May, I should be able to do some public appearances.

I still will come in weekly to do labs.  They will be looking at my liver enzymes as well as the blood numbers. After the taper off, we will go to a visit every two weeks, then a visit once a month. Yay!

I still have 4 more bone marrow biopsies to do, but they will be spaced 6 months apart.  This is the best way to check for leukemia cells and make sure I am still in remission.

Doctor's order is to have a beer tonight. We substituted champagne instead... If you have the means, raise a glass to my doctors and nurses. Cheers!