Katie's BMT Updates

I'm still here ... I've gotten to the stage in the game where I invariably start to succumb to the side effects of my many medications, mainly the steroids and tacrilimous. So, although I continue to improve over all (from the leukemia perspective) I now have to reckon with all the side effects that come with being on a drug too long. For instance, I got shaky hands, fatigue, a UTI called BK, muscle weakness, numb toes and loss of appetite. Best of all, I have drug-induced Diabetes, a condition that the doctor thinks will disappear once I'm off the immunosuppressant drugs. I hope that he is right because I had gestational diabetes and my whole family has diabetes -- I think I'm kind of up against it.

I hate diabetes, too, by the way. I feel like my day is trapped around a schedule of 3 meals and 2 snacks a day ... I have to plan these meals, keeping within my limits for carbohydrates (this involves a lot of counting ... and I never enjoyed math). Finally, each day, I prick my finger and squeeze droplets of blood onto the test strip in my blood sugar monitor. I do it all day: when I wake up and two hours after every meal. Sigh. It's a pain.

But overall, I'm in a good place (I keep reminding myself) ... The transplant has "taken," it looks like it will be a success; My latest bone marrow biopsy showed very little CLL in the marrow. Now I just have to survive the management of my meds and those annoying side effects. My doctor reckons I'll be off the worst of the drugs by June. (As of last Tuesday, I am also completely off the steroids, although it may take weeks for the drug to completely leave my system.)

In other news, I am getting my first haircut since the beginning of all this ... It's still really short (and grows really slowly) so I don't know what they'll be able to do with it. All I'm hoping for is a style I can wear outside the house, something to replace the finger-in-a-light-socket look I have now.

Last time I wrote, I talked about our housing situation. We've been very busy with it -- there was a lot of work to be done to get the house ready to sell. We hired stagers to do most of the work and, every time I go see the place, I recognize it less and less. Mostly, I like it, but I'm a little on the fence about some of the colors they chose ... Our real estate agent tells us not to worry, that it will all come together. There will be a web site soon and I'll be sure to post the link.

And as for where we're going to live, we're staying in San Francisco. Zach got into our first choice preschool, an alternative PreK-8 called Children's Day School. We are thrilled! Jury's still out, though, on where in SF we'll be. It all depends on whether we'll be able to get a decent price on our house: If we get a good price, we move. If we don't, we'll take it off the market and wait.

Also, now that I'm feeling better, I've really been getting to enjoy Zach more. It's kind of hard because I'm clearly #2 next to Grandmama and Zach has this way of making you know it. But, when we're alone, we definitely have fun together. Grandmamma got out Ian's old Legos and we've been having a blast with those ... It makes me wish I had my old Legos, because Ian's set is overwrought with spaceships, planes, trucks, etc.; My old set had more blocks for buildings, etc. ... My brother and I built towns, with police stations, hospitals and garages. I have to say, though, that even with Ian's set, I've made some pretty impressive (at least to a 3-year-old) airplanes and space vehicles.

Well, that's all for now ...

much love,
Katie

PS My friend, Shannon, is running the San Diego Rock 'n Roll Marathon with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's "Team in Training." She's running in honor of me and some other people she knows who have been effected by the disease. If you'd like to donate, you can do it here:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/or/rnr09/ssneed