Beginning of a New Chapter?

It's been a while since you've been updated on Clyde's condition. I spoke with her yesterday as I always do on the days she visits the clinic. She had an appointment with Dr. Longo on Thursday and was again very excited by how well he thinks things are going. When you're facing a procedure like a t-cell transplant that cannot be undone, you're putting a lot of trust in your medical team. That's been Clyde's life for the last few months so she hangs on the words coming out of Longo's mouth. He is nothing but positive.

The blood work shows that all of her counts are steady or rising. The key markers are in the "normal" range. They are continuing to cut back on Prednisone and are happy with how her body and "my" cells are playing together. We're getting to the point when I should stop referring to her blood cells as "mine." (the period is inside the quotation marks, Lance, did I do that right?) At this point she has new bone marrow that is producing new blood cells all the time. Those cells are hers and only hers. It's absolutely amazing if you ask me. Our entire family walks around shaking our heads in disbelief at how fortunate we've been through the process. I can only imagine how Clyde feels.

I do know that she feels well enough to go to work for a couple of hours a few days a week. I'm afraid that people will see her out and think that she's out of the woods and all healed. She's not, yet. When she reported to her doctor that she was feeling head congestion he immediately prescribed antibiotics - strong antibiotics and lots of them. Infections still need to be beaten down swiftly and soundly as no one really knows how strong her immune system is.

Despite a head full of snot, Clyde feels well. I don't know if you know anyone like this, but when I talk to Clyde I can hear her appreciation for health and life in every word. She is a person that is living every moment in the way it should be lived. What a lesson that is for the rest of us. We all gripe about this and that when in fact we should recognize the miracle that is every moment. We should all do ourselves a favor and get on Clyde's bandwagon of moment-by-moment celebration for life.

In about six weeks we'll get results from a complete examination of Clyde's health that will tell us if her new blood is working against the cancer. I'm already feeling anxious about it. I get the sense that while it's in the back of Clyde's mind, she's just looking forward to tomorrow. Awesome.

Be well.