It has been a while since my last blog post but like everyone sometimes life takes over and before you know it its been longer than you thought. With my Dad in hospital it has been a bit of a stressful time and difficult with me having to go back and forth to London and various local hospital appointments.
So in updates the donor top up has had no signs of working yet, next week I will be back in London for the chimerism blood test again to see if donor to my cells ratio has improved. Once we have that result it will be decided when/if I have another top up. Frustrating but it has to be done in small doses rather than one big dose to try and prevent you having Graft versus host disease too badly, so we want a bit of GVHD but not too much! The only sign I have had is stomach problems but after speaking to my consultant it seems more likely it is down to stress than GVHD.
My knee MRI scans showed that I don't need surgery which is great news. My knee problems are biomechanical so physiotherapy, pain relief and time will do the trick. It is something I will always have but like anything it will have its ups and downs as to how much it affects my daily life, I'm just having a bad time with them at the moment.
Last week in London I had my first appointment since before my transplant with the assisted conception unit where they froze some of my eggs. It was basically a catch up as to where my healths at and discussing testing for my disease in the future. Also the dreaded conversation as to whether chemotherapy has caused early menopause, the consultant thinks it is likely and will find out more in a month or two. If that is the case HRT will be started as I have osteopenia and menopause will accelerate this, thats all I need thinner bones ha.
Fantastic news from Anthony Nolan last month NHS England has reversed its decision and will now be funding second stem cell transplants for those who relapse more than 12months after their first transplant. Sasha who I wrote about in previous posts is hoping to be admitted for her second transplant soon although not being funded by the NHS. You don't like to think about it but I must admit it was at the back of my mind that if I relapsed the treatment would not be available to me.