New Years Update..

Happy 2011 everyone, I'm sorry that it has taken me so long to update my blog!!! A lot has taken place since my last post, and thankfully it's all been good! Right before Christmas I had my follow up bone marrow biopsy and PET/ CT scan. These tests are always very stressful for me and my loved ones as they determine if the treatments have been working and in the past they have not yielded great results. However, this time I received excellent news! The bone marrow biopsy showed no signs of cancer in my marrow and the PET/ CT scan showed that the latest transplant had worked and the donors cells were attacking the cancer at an astounding rate. Both of the masses have significantly decreased in size and the doctors feel that the new cells will continue to fight and soon the caner will be completely eradicated. It is still too early to be considered in remission, however I am on my way and keeping positive that I will be soon!

I was hoping that Dr. Reeder would release me to return to Hawaii at the end of this month, but he wants me to stay a little bit longer while he weans me off of the prednisone steroids that I have been on since the initial diagnosis of the slight graft v. host disease. He wants to make sure that once I am completely off of the prednisone the GVHD does not flare back up. I am now down to 5mg every other day and will completely stop the pills next Tuesday, after that I will meet with him for an assessment sometime during the first week of February. If everything looks good, I will hopefully be released a week or so later. It was pretty tough for me to deal with having to stay up here longer since I was really hoping to be home in January but I didn't come this far to mess around at the end. And I would much rather stay here a little bit longer now than head home and then have to come back.

I have also been dealing with a small blood clot in my upper right chest that was caused by my port. To treat the clot I had been giving myself Lovanox injections twice a day in my stomach and am now taking Coumadin as well. Dr. Reeder had me stop the Lovanox shots, but I will have to be on the Coumadin until the port is removed. Since I am done with my treatments and no longer need the port, I suggested that we just remove it, that way I can stop the Coumadin and not have to worry about the clot. Dr. Reeder agreed and with any luck they will be able to squeeze me into their schedule sometime tomorrow to have it taken out!

I promise that I will stop being lazy and update my blog more regularly... I hope that everyone has a great 2011, let's make it one to remember!

*** I also wanted to thank everyone that has been helping my dad out with remodeling his house so that I can live there when I return to Hawaii. I would list all of your names but you know who you are and I don't want to accidentally leave someone out. Thank you for your help and hard work, I truly appreciate it and I know that my dad does too!!!