A OK Stamp of Approval

So I had my oncologist appointment yesterday and she says everything looks good! My vagina has turned out okay after the surgery and I have no active signs of graft/vs/host. My blood work looks normal! For the first time in 3 years!

I wasn't even sure I'd hear that said to me again. My brothers stem cells are settling in nicely and starting to get along with me.

I didn't get the big lowering of my medications I was hoping for, which is a bit of a disappointment. She doesn't want to "rock the boat". That's fine except for the steroids make me sick. I'm on such a low dose that most medical professionals don't think there would be side effects but I have them anyway. When they did my transplant they said I was the ward's "Star" patient because I was young, fit and otherwise healthy, which was a wonderful thing to hear! Shortly after that, though, I turned into the problem patient because I had adverse reactions to almost everything they gave me. They were constantly juggling drugs. It was awful.

Anyway, she did say I could stop taking one drug, the steroid. Yay! Last year when I was taken off the steroids for 2 months I started bouncing back quickly. I expect some good results in the weeks to come.

So my medication schedule is going to stay mostly the same. The one difference is that the first row of my pill box (early morning) will now be empty. The rest is still full. I also think that I've found a mistake in my drugs. Mistakes happen often so you have to be very vigilant and aware of what you're taking. I have so many doctors that it makes it hard to keep track of who's doing what. Scary.

I also am well enough now to start getting all of my immunizations done. Apparently that will take a couple of years to get them all. I'm ready to roll!


And my oncologist was very curious about what happened with my vagina and cervix. I'm the human anomaly again. She has never seen a case where the vagina was attacked by the graft/vs/host while the rest of me seemed okay. Very unusual apparently. It's the story of my life. She said she has also has never seen a case where the cervix actually closed over and blocked. At least that means I'm special.

During the surgery they released 250-500 ml of fluid from my uterus which is the same amount as my chocolate milk. I was like the human utero, water balloon.

So I think I will name myself Ms.Spectacularly Unusually Special, for the day.