Friday, April 3, 2009

Day +105

The past week has been another good one. On Monday I had a dermatology appointment, and by that point my rash had subsided considerably. It still itches occassionally, but the dermatologist thought it had improved. He did prescribe an antibacterial cream to go with the steroid cream already prescribed. However, he wasn't overly concerned, and I'll continue with treatment as usual.

Today my doctor remarked about how the rash had cleared up. Thats a good sign, but he also noted the inside of my mouth looked like minor GVHD. They had wanted a dental consult this past week, but the appointment wasn't made. It'll be scheduled for next week, when they will probably take a biopsy from inside my mouth to check the tissue. I haven't felt any discomfort in my mouth, but its apparently obvious to the doctors. They also took a few swabs of my inner cheek in order to check for any fungal or viral infections.

Other than that issue things appeared fine from the doctor's perspective. My blood results look good, and I've had nothing negative to report. My doctor wants to wait until my immune-suppressant drugs are tapered again before removing my hickman line. That decision will come in two weeks, so that will be another little thing to look forward to.

Some good news is that I spoke with the principal at my job, and he is willing to try and help me return to work with a shift in my responsibilities. He is willing to help me find tasks that involve support of the program without direct student involvement, and limiting my interactions with students to controlled, one on one situations. I shared this with my doctor today and he was happy to hear this news. When I initially brought up my desire to return to work last week with my doctor, he seemed pretty hesitant about it. Today I got the feeling that he was sympathetic to my need to return to work, and was happy that my supervisor and I were creating a plan that would allow me to better control my work environment.

The principal is trying to find out details from human resources about what I need to do to reenter the system. I'm not sure of a time frame for when things will work out, but I feel that the process is moving forward.

In addition to all of the good news with my health, I turned 27 this week. Twenty six was a pretty intense year, but its a blessing to be here for my 27th. It was also great to be able to celebrate my birthday without feeling ill or exhausted.

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