More Numbers: 20, 29, and 35

Today's a big day for Christine and me.  It's our 20th wedding anniversary!  For the most part, we've agreed to take a rain check.  It's really hard to feel celebratory while slogging our way through the daily routine here at Hopkins.  The routine includes a stomach that never seems to settle and just an overall sub-par feeling - and, for Christine, a dragged-down feeling from putting up with me, and the monotony of it all.  All that said, miraculously, I felt reasonably good today and Christine and I had a chance to get down to the harbor, walk along the water, and enjoy a nice meal together back in our apartment.  Meanwhile my blood counts are trending upwards now - a huge thanks that my body is bouncing back, new immune system and all!

Over the last several days, I've migrated from daily meds administered intravenously at the hospital to a confusing array of pills that I'm now taking, in varying doses, frequencies and hours of the day and night.  In total, I'm taking 29 pills each day, at last count. (For someone who, prior to battling lymphoma, hardly ever took pills of any kind, it's overwhelming.)  And every day, my regimen changes based on the latest blood work and the doctors' assessment of what I need to be taking to manage the graft versus host dynamics playing out inside of me.  Never a "dull" moment…and yet plenty of them.

Finally, it's Day 22 post transplant today, which means it's less than two weeks before we reach Day 35.  What's the significance of that?  Well, if all goes well, we've been told that we can return to Falls Church at that time and thereafter commute to Baltimore three times a week for monitoring and any required treatment.  Definitely hopeful that Day 35 will bring a joyous reunion with our kids and return to our local community that has poured out so much love on us during this long trek.  We simply cannot wait!