Happy St Patrick's Day!!
Why don't you iron 4-Leaf clovers? Because you don’t want to press your luck.
Hope your week is off to a nice start. The Staudts have been busy - over the weekend we celebrated an early Easter complete with an Easter basket hunt. Growing up my Dad hid the baskets for all four of us kids in the most creative places. We had a blast hunting for them in the piano, dryer, you name the hiding place. The tradition continues here and the kids each found each others basket. We topped off the morning with my Mom's famous Sausage Strata - YUM!
Monday Jim and I went to the clinic for our final visit prior to my re-admission this coming Thursday. The numbers look GREAT (my Doctors are very excited about my blood counts) and I am going into the transplant in a strong place physically, emotionally and spiritually. One area of concern had been my kidneys - as of yesterday my creatinine level (a kidney function indicator) is normal - yeah!!. The spinal tap from last week show no sneaky leukemia cells swimming around in my spinal fluid. And my platelets and white blood cell counts are very robust (just in time for the chemo to knock them down to 0).
I am heading into the hospital Thursday morning, will have a central line placed and will start chemo. Even though I am in full remission, Chemo is part of the 'conditioning' to get my body ready for the new bone marrow stem cells. The chemo will last a week and the transplant will happen via infusion on Wednesday 3/25. No matter how many different ways I ask the question(s), there is no predicting exactly how long I will be in the hospital or what side effects I might have. The initial side effects (the first few weeks) will be related to the chemo - last time I had fatigue, some stomach troubles, mouth sores, fevers, but all were managed exceptionally well. We'll see what this round brings but no matter what I know I am in unbelievable hands with the care at Beth Israel Deaconess. Also, I have so much waiting for me at home!
That's it for now - thanks for checking in!
Love
Maureen
Glad to hear that things are working out in the right direction. We are thinking about you and hope that everything keeps going well,
ReplyDeleteIt's all sounding positive and we're sending you loads of love and good wishes.
ReplyDeleteHappy St. Patrick's Day! Happy news!
ReplyDeleteAll good wishes for forging forward with great success! You truly are an inspiration!
ReplyDeleteHugs, W-
Happy day after St. Patrick's Day, me Irish lass! Looks like the blessings of St. Patrick and the luck of the Irish is surrounding you in full! Here's a toast (using toast, of course) to a successful month ahead so you can return home healthy and for good. Love you, Moe!
ReplyDeleteHi- This is great news.. keep everyone updated!
ReplyDeleteHooray, Moe! So glad to hear everything is falling into place. You can do this!
ReplyDeleteThinking of you today as you begin the next phase of your journey to recovery. It seems like the stars have all lined up in your favor! You are so amazingly strong and are an inspiration to us all !! Go Moe!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteLotsa love, Kate