Day +60 Speed Bumps

I had my check-up today and all of my bloodwork is back into the normal range. My WBCs are at 5.0 and my platelets are up to 161,000. Hurray for my bone marrow and the successful graft of those little stem cells.

Unfortunately I am fighting some sort of stomach/intestinal thing right now. I started to have random bouts of nausea starting about a week and a half ago. I lost my appetite but was managing. Then around last Friday the nausea was a lot more constant and I started throwing up. By today I will politely describe it as basically a dysfunctional intestinal tract from one end to the other. I've dropped almost 10 lbs and feel very miserable and washed out. If it doesn't clear up in a day or two I will head back to the doctor to rule out an infection.

My other little annoyance is that my finger nails have started to come off in a weird sort of way from the base up. It doesn't hurt, but it is aggravating. Then I remind myself this is a lot better than where I was 60 days ago on the transplant floor.

George and his family headed back to Australia last week and John and his clan will be leaving the end of this week. It will be quiet around town without our gang roaming the streets, shops, and beaches. Meal planning won't be nearly as fun as when you are trying to figure out how to feed 12 or more people!

Razor Stubble!!

I have tiny little hairs growing on my head!! It does not appear to be coming in blonde.....oh well, I can still hope for straight hair this time around!! Hopefully in a month or so I will have enough to drop the wig and sport a new short hair-do. Unfortunately, I also found razor stubble on my legs. I could have done without that for a few more months!

I've been doing well and staying healthy. My stamina is increasing, but I get tired if I am on the go for too long. We are staying busy doing family things and I actually missed my appt with Dr. McGaughey that was Tuesday. I was sure it was Thursday, but maybe I can still blame it on "chemo-brain". I'm rescheduled for June 25th....guess they didn't think it was urgent to get me in sooner!

Here some pictures that we had done by a photographer at my parent's new house:

Our little family:


The four siblings:


The whole gang:

Lots of Family Pictures

Hi there! Just thought I would check in and share some pictures of my brothers and their families from Australia. We are having a great time seeing each other. It is definitely "Brisbin Chaos" at its best as we try to negotiate schedules, nap times, personalities, vehicles, feeding everyone, etc.... I am having fun and trying not to do too much, but there are a lot of activities going on!! Since everyone is staying over with my parents, I have "rest periods" like today when the kids are in school and it is quiet here around the house.

So here we go.... the younger of my two brothers, George, arrived first with his two children Cyrus (3-1/2) and Lara (almost 2). We did the Memorial Day parade in Portsmouth and then took the ferry round trip as a "boat ride" for the kids:

We brought my oldest brother, John, and his wife, Caroline, and their daughter Varsha (2-1/2) back with us from NY on May 31st. George's wife, Div, arrived after her work conference on June 1st. Katie was especially excited as each new day seemed to bring more cousins and aunts and uncles to town. The group has enjoyed swimming in our pool several times and what goes better with that than a hot dog dinner on the patio.....

As the evenings get late, we have done combined "tub time" washing the kids en masse and then have relied on Chris and Katie to do some entertaining. In this case, it is story time on the sofa.......not sure how much they all enjoyed the ending of Chris' latest Hardy Boys book....

Yesterday we had a great time at the beach. George sent Katie flying...

And John had lots of energy for chasing the kids, too...

Boys at Sea:

And bathing beauties in the sand:

Cyrus the surfer boy:

Well, that's probably enough pics for now. Hopefully I can get a few of us women-folk next time and a group photo of the whole gang!

Home Safely from New York

We are thankful for a safe trip to New York and back home. It was a lot of driving to do in just 36 hours, but I reminded myself that going back was a small price to pay for getting to come home early!! Plus, it was neat to pick up my brother and his family and bring them back to town.

My check-up went well. The Neulasta shot has certainly worn off since my white blood cell count fell back down to 2.5. This is a little low, but not an unusual level for this point after the transplant. Hopefully by the 3 month mark my white cells will have climbed back up to over 4.0. My platelets are up to 117,000 which is good.

Dr. Moskowitz is ok with some selective dining out after 6 weeks....so long as it is a clean place and I order cooked food. I'm already at 5 weeks so I can eat out in another week!! Other than that I'm just supposed to keep taking it easy and keep getting better. I will go back to New York in August - 3 months after the transplant - and have scans to make sure I am still in remission.

Back at home I will be having fun the next few weeks spending time with the whole family and watching the kids get to know their Australian cousins. I'll try to update the blog in a week or so.