Monday May 4th

Greetings to my wonderful friends and family!  I am out of the hospital (again!) after my last trip from the emergency room.  What an incredible team at Beth Israel so quickly diagnosing the reasons for my labored breathing.  I  was discharged to the capable and loving home of my cousin Mark, his wife Karen and my Aunt Debbie.  Mark and Karen live three blocks from the clinic and the walk too/from has been restorative (and gets a little easier every day).  Aunt Debbie (who lives in Sharon, MA and is staying with us at Mark and Karen's) has been my companion for the trips to the clinic and my Mom takes over again on Wednesday May 7.

Joseph returned from Spain and it was wonderful seeing him, Emma and Jim over the weekend.  He had an amazing time (those of you who are privy to his snap chat story can tell me just how amazing - wait, don't tell me :).  My dear friend Denise Rao Monahan spent the evening with me Sunday and made me a beautiful dinner.

Each day the news gets a bit better for my health.  The main measurements for now are my blood counts - virtually all of which are now my donors.  White cells back to normal and platelets climbing. Also. my creatinine was getting a bit out of whack (again!!) but stabilized and is not coming down.  This is great news as it tells me my kidneys are getting stronger.  Also it helps the doctor's know they are on the right track with the levels of some of the drugs I am taking to fight graft vs host disease (see earlier posts).

I was talking to Emma and we were listing the holidays I missed including Christmas, New Years Eve, Easter, Valentines Day - she also mentioned International Dance Day and my cousin Mark mentioned Law Day.  Enough already!!  Actually Emma had great humor and acceptance about this whole journey - I can learn a lot from her :)

For now I am still going into the clinic every day - next step is home to North Andover.  I hesitate to attach a date to my return home - last time I thought I was going home I ended up in an ambulance going to the emergency room followed by re-admittance into Beth Israel.  BUT - the perennial optimist - should things stay stable this week I may be headed home by the end of the week.

Thank you for all  your love, prayers, and support.  I am so very blessed.

Thanks for checking in
Love
Maureen