Healthy?

I had blood tests at the crack of dawn this morning. I was gone from the house for less than an hour for the blood draw, then came back home and slept for another 3 hours because the steroids had put me off my schedule so badly.

We also had a team appointment at 2:45 today. Team appointments are with a nurse, my assigned PA, and whichever doctor is currently on rounds for the month. Since the docs rotate on a 30 day basis, I've been thru a few doc in the two years we've been playing this game. However, this one was new to me. I like her. She listens well, seems to know what the heck she's talking about, and is generally communicative. I prefer to have a doc who actually talks instead of simply trying to tell you why you need to follow their directives.

So we talked about some of the new drugs and their side effects. We talked about minor changes in the current drug plan, and we talked about the future.

To tell you the truth, now that the Cyclosporine problem is gone, I feel good - very good. If this is the worst I can expect for my future, it's not too bad. The simple truth is that I know I can go UP from here, with better physical fitness and improved mental acuity. It's just gonna take a little work and some time.

How well am I doing right now? I've been given a small holiday from the center. I have no appointments on T, W, and Th. A reprieve from the governor, as it were.

But FRIDAY, oh what a day that will be. Blood draw at 8:30 AM, bone marrow aspiration at 9:00 AM, then a team visit at 10:45 AM.

See, Friday is day 28. Tradition dictates they should find out if any of this stuff worked. Am I engrafting? If I'm engrafting, is it the donor cells that are engrafting, or is it my old cells? Is the tumor load being reduced? In short, have there been any benefits derived from the million + dollars that have been burned in the "Andre Project"?

Friday is the tell-all day. Of course, we won't know the answers on Friday, we'll simply have the materials available for testing...... and we'll get the verdict sometime next week. Time will tell.