Irene

The hardest part about this transplant journey is how long the recovery process is. In my brain, I rationally know that there are milestones – day 100, 6 months, 1 year, 2 year – but I’m honestly totally over it. I’d like to fast forward to a year from now where I might feel a […]

It’s an interesting place to be when you’re an adult and your 72 year old mom is your main caregiver. At this point in life, most other folks are married so they have a spouse that they’re able to rely on for caregiving. I haven’t been quite as fortunate in this department to have a

It’s hard to believe that today is day 55 since transplant and it’s the middle/end of July, mainly because this whole month has been an utter blur. After my IVIG on June 27th, I went home pretty fatigued, but nothing out of the ordinary. I’m usually pretty tired after a 5-hour infusion so I thought

Wednesday, June 19, 2024 to Friday, June 28, 2024 – Days 21-30 It’s been over a week since I’ve made it to the outside. It’s a big milestone to leave the hospital, and often times we think that the patient is so much better at this point, but that’s the farthest from the truth. I

Big news: Discharge is happening! I know the road is still going to be winding, but I am so happy that I’ll be able to sleep in a real bed. I haven’t been to the outside in 5 weeks!!! Saturday, June 15, 2024 to Sunday, June 16, 2024 – Day 17 & 18 The weekend

Trigger warning: discussions surrounding bodily fluids so if you’re not comfortable with that, move along. Thursday, June 13, 2024 – Day 15 Today was an okay day. A lot of the dead flesh in my mouth sloughed off this morning. It’s great because it means my body is healing, but unfortunately, that also means the

I’ve been thinking a lot about the cost of being sick as a young adult (yes I know I’m almost 40), not just the financial aspect of this whole situation, but the grief that comes from having to deal with something like this my entire life when most others don’t until much later in life.

Wednesday, June 12, 2024 – Day 14 I engrafted today! That means that my absolute neutrophil count is above 500. Morning Labs Afternoon Labs WBC 1.18 1.98 Hgb 9.3 9.8 Plt 19 27 ANC .61 not done in afternoon Woot woot!!! While I still have a long way to go, this is a HUGE milestone.

Monday, June 10, 2024 – Day 12 Today is the first day in a long time that I finally could sit up and talk/whisper to someone. I was also able to go on a 10-minute walk today too. It’s not much, but it’s so much more than what I’ve been able to do this last

Monday, June 3rd, 2024 – Day 5 Today was pretty miserable. I don’t even know how to explain it but my mouth is on fire, and it burns to swallow anything. I can’t eat so they decided to start me on tube feeding today. Thanks to my home team (Dr. Chau) for convincing me to