Day +63

I left the hospital Wednesday as planned, and less than 24 hours later I was back at NIH for my regular Thursday appointment. The doctors had been tracking me daily while I was inpatient, so there wasn't much new information to be given or received. My blood counts are fine, and I'm feeling alright. I still find myself coughing here and there, but its not that bad. I had a CT scan while I was at NIH in order for the doctor's to track the progression of my sinus infection and pneumonia. I'm not sure what the scan told the doctors, but I feel pretty good. I've got a prescription to help me get through the night without coughing, which I'm sure is a blessing for Kate.

One change that was made in my treatment at today's visit was the level of tacrolimus and sirolimus that I'll be taking. Around day +60 the protocol I am on requires the doctors to begin tapering off those immune-suppressant drugs. So the level of those two drugs is reduced by a third. The significance of this is that the reduction of immune-suppressants should allow the new cells from my donor to fight my remaining cancer cells more efficiently. It also gives my body a greater capability to fight off infections, which after two hospital stays in the last month, I'm very happy to have. The other side of lowering the levels of tacrolimus and sirolimus is the increased potential of having Graft Versus Host Disease symptoms. The doctors haven't identified any GVHD with me yet, and hopefully I won't have to deal with any of that now. Who knows what will happen though.

The good news that I'm taking from the last week is that the transplant team appears really optimistic about how I am doing post-transplant. They don't know what caused my two recent infections, but they feel confident that by managing my neutrophil count through several neupogen shots a week, that I can better handle any infections in the future. Hopefully in the upcoming days and weeks I can continue to progress positively and get over this pneumonia that is currently still nagging at me.