BMT + 46

Haem: 96

White: 7.3

Platelets: 162

Neut: 5.6

Weight: 61.5

Another clinic visit done! Anth and I were very pleased with ourselves today - 3rd clinic visit and we had it working well today. We learnt to turn up to the pathology 5-10 min earlier and that meant I only had to wait 30 min for bloods to be taken (week 1 was 2 hours, week 2 1 hour) and then down to clinic. As we get there early I was allocated number 2 and number 1 was already in. This is the stage when the nurse comes and gets you to check weight, blood pressure etc and to go through eating, sleeping etc.

By the time we got out of seeing the nurse it was 9.30am - and the Dr clinic starts at 11.00am so we decided to head back to the apartment and got some things done (for me it was working on jigsaw puzzle) and we headed back to walk into clinic just as the Dr was calling my name.. so we walked straight through!

We were congratulating ourselves on the walk back to the apartment after clinic but then I got a call from pathology - they needed me to come back as they forgot one of the vials this morning and so I needed to go back to get more blood taken. At least they didn't make me wait again, but another needle!

So clinic - bone marrow biopsy results back and essentially everything looks good. However, there are some MRD cells (minimal residual disease) in a tiny percentage (0.00xx%). Now these could be leukemia cells or they could be just new cells that haven't formed properly as the bone marrow is re-establishing itself. Dr felt that it is nothing to worry about, but it means rather than wait for 3 months to have another biopsy, they will do another one at 2 months (26 Feb) to see if this changes at all. If it turns out to be leukaemia cells, it may mean I have to have T-cells transfused from the stem cells from my donor (the hospital froze some). So, a bit of a waiting game.

Also, apparently I now have 98% male blood! My blood is now a mix of O+ and B+ but apparently it takes up to 6 months for it to switch to a point I can get B+ transfusions.

Happy to see my haemaglobin is holding after the transfusion last week and hoping it lasts another fortnight but need to be ready to have a transfusion next week if it drops again.

It's been a good week. Got out of the apartment to visit cousin at her house last Wednesday which was great - felt like I was escaping, and then on Sat we went 'home' - well, stayed at my parents place and my kids came over and stayed and we came back yesterday. But I got to drop into home to pick up some clothes, see the cat & chickens and just remember what it's like to be there - just made me more homesick.

So, I've been told I'll be here at least until the end of the month but if the next biopsy comes back OK I can probably look at heading home then (Yey). Dr even said that even if I need to get the T-cells, this could be done as an outpatient and there is still a possibility that I could go home.

Counting the days.