Breathing In Good Biopsy Results...

After so many months of fear, doubt, hope being held onto with every bit of strength I had, my Dad and I got to hear the final biopsy report from 4/4/11 showed my leukemia blasts went from 15% prior to the first Donor Lymphocyte Infusion to 3% after the first DLI!!! My neutrophils went from .26 to .4, one small step in the right direction, and hopefully we'll see some some rising blood counts in a few weeks. So, still waiting, but with so much more hope than ever!

My next biopsy will be in 4 weeks, very exciting! I'm in the middle of a mental adjustment I wasn't expecting to have the pleasure of experiencing.

Back to last week, I had a great time being with Sherry(sis-in-law), walking, talking, shopping, cooking & all full of nurturing for me as well Daniel. There was also time off for Jaime to spend the day in Miami on business, while Sherry covered any IV's needed during that time.

Friday, just as my Donor Lymphocyte Infusion (DLI) ended, Susan appeared. I had been watched for an hour before they released me to make sure there were no immediate side effects, then off we went down where our driver, Jaime, was waiting to take us home to SRQ. Had a yummy dinner and Upwords was played and as per Aunt Natalie, Upwords/Upwards have been closely related! Saturday morning was a challange with my leg pain intensity just not wanting to cooperate even with the drugs, so at one point I just said "%$#@@$% it, let's go to the beach. We grabbed some supplies and off we went. Walked a bit in lots of pain, so back to our chairs where Susan faced her chair toward me, I put my feet up and slowly the pain went away and I was in heaven with an unbelievable breeze, yellow warning flags flying for swimmers and surfers, and it was just more than anyone could have expected for 11 in the morning! What great beach and sister time all in one! Susan did all kinds of cooking in the afternoon. For us, delicious yellow tail snapper coated in pecan meal and a veggie lasagna and for the carnivores, a meatloaf with veggies, then topping it off with chocolate covered special dessert to take to our Passover dinner.

Skipping ahead to Sunday morning, my donor was in the mood for a power walk, so Susan and I did a 4 mile walk in the beautiful morning air! A quick little shopping trip to Ellenton in the afternoon, and back in time for a most wonderful Passover dinner at Joyce and Dads's. We couldn't have have had a more perfect ending to Susan's trip! Thank you, Joyce, for your warmth, love and good cooking!

I am now awaiting the arrival of my cousin David from Seattle, who won't get to see the space shuttle launch as he planned, but I stayed in his plans. So yeah!! I'm getting ready to spend the next 24 hours laughing. More good medicine!

Thank you all who have been brave enough to continue calling and writing even during all my crabby days and hours. I am so happy to finally be able to give you all some good news!

Love to you all!

Carol