Week 28 – Monday 19th March GVH recedes

The news of course is I am still alive!  It has been been 10 days since my last blog which was week 26 – Imagine missing a week without a blog!   I even had friends on the phone calling up to make sure things were OK- thanks for your concern.

From now on I’ll probably keep to a Monday blog after the usual visit to the Doctor or if special news comes to hand I will of course put this out!

The visits to the doctor are now twice a week and for the last couple of visits there has not been a requirement for any extra IV fluids which has made the visits so much shorter.

I am still on steroids to help with the GVH but this is being cut back slowly together with a reduction in some of the other drugs.  My liver function is holding up very well as is my kidney function.

Some of the key blood results are below:

Haemoglobin  – 97 (down from a recent 117)

Wcc = 12.9

Platelets – 53 (down from 84)

Neutrophils  12.2

Bilirubin – 11 (which is in the normal range – indicator of liver health)

Overall my doctor is very happy with these key blood results and together with some other important numbers she says “I am doing very well”

I am still struggling eating normal meals, I am eating more in the morning  but seem to run out of puff by lunch time and sleep is still a challenge.

On the social scene

We have had many visitors over the last 10 days including my parents who headed off to Darwin for a train trip south on the Ghan. We also had a visit from Oscar Sheridan (nephew) and Jan’s parents Helen and Allen en route to yet another wool sale.  And Darren and Kath Wallace from Wagga en route to the Great Ocean Road for a week.

Oh yes and a special dinner with Kate and Stewart Sutherland in Hardware Lane just to catch up on the Tassie/Tooma news, (sorry for the first pass – it has been busy!)

Richard Reid dropped into the hospital for a good catch up (sadly Rich has just lost his Dad to cancer) and Peter Zacharia.

And last weekend Dougall’s mates from Wagga Oliver and Alister Butt (and Ollies’ girlfriend Jeannie made an Epic trip to Melb for a good catch up.  It was good to hear their stories (together with a load of fresh vegies and eggs from Jenni Butt – thankyou!)