Category: My lymphoma and related medical stuff

This is a pretty amazing story and the Washington Post had a good news piece about it. Good thing they didn’t remove the original heart! Welsh Girl’s Heart Takes Over From Transplant

This morning were much improved. WBC count was normal (8.8), RBC’s were a little low, and hemoglobin was borderline normal (11.0). So I got the shot of darbepoetin, the RBC booster as was planned. I will probably be starting on Bactrim, an antibiotic, three days a week as a preventitive measure for chest infections. Will…

Yesterday and today (days 4 and 5 back in the gym) went surprisingly well. I felt good just about the whole time. However my volume of work is still only 70% of what it was before going into MSK for the stem cell transplant. Tomorrow morning I will have a full blood count done at…

The session went OK. Biked for 16 minutes, stretched for 12 and then used the ellyptical trainer for 10 minutes. Kept the machine settings at th same levels as Friday, just did a few minutes more. Tomorrow I will repeat Saturday’s session, including the weights.

I worked the plan I mentioned in my last post on the subject Tom Faranda’s Folly: First day back in the gym , riding the bike for 18 minutes, stretching for 12 minutes and then getting on the weight machines. I did about 55% of the volume I had been doing on the chest press…

Having gotten the OK from Dr. K. on Tuesday, today I went back to the gym. The last time I was there was January 8th, almost exactly three months ago. So this is a semi big deal. No more 25-28 minute walks or dumbbells in the gym. I’d been thinking about this for quite a…

Legislation in Massachusetts, awaiting the governor’s signature, could possible break th logjam of how to provide insured healthcare to all citizens. The legislation is modelled on the principle underlying car insurance – you own a car, you must have insurance. Here’s the NY Times article Massachusetts Sets Health Plan for Nearly All – New York…

Here’s how the meeting went: No big concern about the lowered blood cell counts – could be due to a number of factors. I was given a shot of Neutropena (sp?) to try and boost the wbc count. The neupogen last week had very little effect – count went from 1.6 to 1.8. I will…

As per my post on Wednesday the 29th Tom Faranda’s Folly: 4th rituxin treatment and low cell counts , I had some injections last week to get my white and red blood cell counts up. The bloodwork this Tuesday, when I have my appointment with the transplant Doc, Dr. Kewalramani, will tell the tale of…

There have been a number of studies in the past 20 years which have attempted to scientifically examine whether intercessory prayer "works" – whether it can help people get better in a measurable way. The most recent study is scheduled to appear in The American Heart Journal next week, but the results were released online…