More good news

Yes, I'm on a roll...consider the following new developments:

*** the results of Friday's CAT scan of my lungs shows that the lesions I have are disappearing! My doctor (and the radiologist) thinks they were an inflammatory response to the staph infection I had in my blood....not a fungal infection.

*** the analysis of my blood on Friday shows continued improvements. My hematocrit (a measure of red blood cells) is now 32, up from 23 a month ago. Normal is 42 to 52. My bone marrow is recovering from the chemotherapy!

*** one of the leading hematologists in the world told me today that "unnofficially", the clinical trial I'm participating in is going well for participants. His team will be publishing official results in November.

*** I have been taking the experimental chemotherapy drug Dasatinib for two weeks now without serious side effects. As a participant in the trial I'll be taking it for a year, so I'm happy to find that I am tolerating the pills well.

As for Gina, she is still nursing her broken collar bone....no tennis, no bike riding, no swimming...she is suffering from an endorphin deficit!

Good results

YES! The results from the bone marrow biopsy are complete and I am cancer free! Yippee!! I've been trying to visualize this for months now.

Thirty to forty percent of people with AML have a reoccurrence during the two years after the initial remission. However, the experimental drug that I'm taking has reduced this number drastically in small initial trials. That's what the trial I'm in is all about...trying to replicate these initial results in a larger group of 60 people. I started to explain this to a friend yesterday and she said it's TMI. I wish I could be transported to December 2014 briefly (maybe permanently). At that point, two years after the leukemia first went into remission, a cancer free biopsy result will mean that I am cured. But, for now, I am happy. 

So what about Gina? Her bruises are changing color, new bruises have showed up and others are no longer painful. It appears that she might have actually landed on the rotweiler. She doesn't have any road rash, just those beautiful bruises. Her collar bone was broken, but not displaced and this will speed her recovery. Her physical therapist says she will be able to drop the sling in three weeks.

Run in with a rotweiler

Why is this woman smiling? With bruises like that I might not be. A rotweiler ran out directly in front of Gina's bike as she was going fast downhill. She ran over the dog, demolished the front fork of her bike (I told her she didn't have to go to such lengths to get a new bike!) and crashed on the pavement. She broke her collar bone, maybe a rib and bruised her hip and side something fierce. So, this house is really hurting. As she says, she was lucky, it could have been even worse. She will  have to wear a sling for 3-4 weeks...and go to physical therapy. It puts a ding in her summer plans....first, she won't be able to ride the Trek Across Maine with her team. They were out on a training ride when the dumb dog charged.

I had my bone marrow biopsy done today. Went into the hospital, took that lovely Versid and woke surprised to find that I was all done. I'll be hearing preliminary results on Friday and the definitive results next week. I have my fingers crossed big time. The three previous tests have been negative.

I went to see the infectious disease doctor yesterday and he told me the blood tests for various types of fungus in the blood were all negative. I was happy!! He forgot to have a radiologist compare the CT scans from Boston to the ones they took in Augusta in order to follow up on two lesions on my lung they found recently. It's probably lung nodules that don't need to be treated....

We are hunkered down on this rainy day. So many people have brought food over I'm wondering what kinds of other calamities I can report on to keep the food flow going for a week or two.