Day 29 – What a wonderful day

 

Today’s blog is one of bliss. Sunshine, cool start on my 6.30am walk with Jan but a glorious sunny day throughout.  Why can’t Melbourne turn this on more often? (A: because it would not be Melbourne!)

After 6 or so hours of uninterrupted sleep I woke at my usual time of 4.30am to plan the day (and join Jan in a meditation session).  Off for a walk and then breaky etc etc all boring stuff, but for me Bliss, there is nothing like sleeping in your own bed!

The day involved a few calls in the morning and a lovely home-made sweet potato soup then quick nap (1 hr thanks!) before heading down to Port Melbourne with Lachy for my first real drone lesson.

Lachy had spent some time last night using a simulator to show me the controls but nothing beats the real thing!  We found a great spot at the Western end of the beach and spent the next hour or so together flying – yes can you believe it flying again so soon!

 

But where to from here?

My program for recovery is a moving target at present but this is what I do know:

Bone Marrow Biopsy Thursday – results in 2-3 days (early next week).  This one is critical for planning the next step in the recovery process.

If the Biopsy goes well then we seek the Bone Marrow Donor – my brother Tony, and sister Fiona have both been tested but we have no answer as to their compatibility yet – both are willing but the blood stars have to line up – there is a 25% chance.

If they don’t match then the Medical Team search the world database of Bone Marrow Donors (30 million peoplemost of whom are in Germany apparently).  Other family members ie. Father, mother, son, daughter do not come close due to the basic Mendalian theory of cross breeding.

If a match is found then I go through another round of Chemo to nuke all cells again (just to make sure) and the Bone Marrow Transplant occurs.  After that there is more time in hospital but I am not sure of the periods.

If a match is not found immediately I would need to report back in to hospital fairly regularly for Chemo and other tests until a donor is found.

If the Biopsy delivers an unfavourable result ( the White Blood Cells  blasts are the ones they are interested in – they must be less than 5% of WBCs they were 79% of my WBCs when I entered hospital 4 weeks ago!!!) then we are in for a much longer ride.

Basically I am re-admitted for another round of Chemo (let’s call that a month) and we go through the Biopsy process again (and again if needed, and again).  I can see the months ticking by……….

Leukemia (apparently that is the American version!) or Leukaemia for the more traditional/British (both are OK) is not a short term disease.  This process may well go on for 6 mths or more.

All that I can say is I am in fabulous hands with the Medical Professionals at RMH and they are doing an excellent job focusing on me as an individual and looking at the best ways for me to Beat Leukemia.

It has been a wonderful having Claire and her boyfriend Nick over for a long weekend.  Claire’s cooking is amazing and Nick has now delivered a master class on how to edit videos and add music – new skill for the old dog.

As of tomorrow I am backing off on the daily blog and will look at every 2 or 3 days.  No one wants to read about my breakfast or daily walks!  Rest assured I will keep new information coming as I think this is the best way to inform my family and friends about progress – and for some strange reason people keep reading the Blog and sending me lovely messages – which I am truly grateful for.

 

 For those with the medical/technical mind Jan has uploaded a new Doc under Haematology 101 which covers the basics of Leukemia.

 

 

PS The Dog nearly peed on my new drone prior to takeoff!