Out of the hospital.

I am out. Got released yesterday afternoon, which is a full week earlier than they had originally suggested. I have a meeting with Dr. Meehan on Thursday, so we are staying with my second cousins (my mom's cousins) who live in Vermont. They have a beautiful home on some beautiful land and they are two of the sweetest people you could hope to meet. Becky and I are enjoying sitting on the porch reading, looking out at the gardens. The day has been very nice. 

I am doing well enough that they did not bother to drain the rest of the fluid from my lung, but believe that it will be re-absorbed naturally. My breathing seems to be uninhibited, although it is not like I am doing windsprints or anything very challenging. The lymphoma is in remission, although it still shows up on the PET scan. The doctors and I believe that my donor cells are going to take care of it. The doctors believe that it will try to relapse eventually, but we can keep it suppressed with the chemo drug Velcade before it becomes an actual relapse. So my worst-case scenario has changed from "September" to "several years".  Basically, until my lymphoma become resistant to the Velcade. I still have high hopes that my donor cells will stay ahead of the lymphoma indefinitely. While I will never be "cured" because my lymphoma is refractory, if I never have another relapse, it is basically the same thing. As long as the donor white blood cells recognize and hunt down the lymphoma faster than the lymphoma reproduces, I will not have a relapse. I have some faith in my donor cells. So far they have responded well above typical. Go team!

The only problem I currently have is a pain in my abdomen directly below my spleen. Nothing showed up on the PET scan or on the X-ray that I had, so it is probably not anything that will lead to further complications, but it hurts quite a bit. I am on a good amount of pain killer, and it is all for this abominable pain. It has been going on for about a week. Originally we thought that it was a gas bubble, as some of the medications that I was on were causing me some problems in that area, and then the thought was that perhaps something was bruised. Although Becky just reminded me today that I had a very similar pain, in the same place when my spleen was shrinking. It is, in fact, shrinking again. So that might simply be the problem. There is probably still scar tissue in there from when it was so swollen, and is it shrinks it tugs on things and pulls in ways that are uncomfortable. It is one of the things that my doctor and I will discuss on Thursday.

If that meeting goes well, we will be back in Cundy's harbor that evening, and back in Brooks on Friday. We are planning to stay up there permanently, except for regularly scheduled trips back to Dartmouth-Hitchcock for check-ups. We are excited to finish our house, so that is the big push through the end of the summer and the fall. 

Leif