100 days+

FROM CASSIE: In mid-February I hit the 100 day mark since my stem cell transplant, which is the first milestone in the transplant world. It means that I'm past the worst of the procedure and on the path to recovery. I'm still reminded that full recovery is slow and it could take a year or two until that will technically happen. But 100 days feels good! I have hit a couple roadblocks since. That pesky graft vs. host disease was the latest to rear again in my liver. It brings on some annoying side effects: itching, fatigue, yellow eyes (to name a few). And some of my steroid and anti-rejection medications have been increased again which is frustrating, especially the steroid since that gives me a bit of a chipmunk/puffy cheek and makes me extra hungry. Not a good combo. Kurt says the good news is that I can now bench press 350!

But, overall, things are going well. I'm needing blood transfusions much less frequently which means that my sister's stem cells have grafted and are now my own cells starting to produce red blood cells and other good things as they should. I'm getting more energy every day and soon my doctor's visits will hopefully go down to every 2 weeks instead of every week. My hair is growing in nicely, though not quite fast enough for my taste. But I venture out without a hat now, which is exciting. It's still a little shocking when I see my reflection in the mirror but I'm trying to embrace the idea that I'll get to see my hair in all stages of length and see what sticks. I never would have been brave enough to chop my hair off before so I might as well take advantage of it. I'd say right now I'm at the Julie Andrews in "The Sound of Music" stage. Which, I have to say, I'm enjoying far more than the "GI Jane" stage.

My friend, Nikki's, wedding is next weekend so I'll be traveling back to Ohio to be one of her bridesmaids. I'm so excited to be part of her special day and look forward to what will hopefully be a nice, easygoing trip, filled with wedding festivities (dancing!!!) and visiting with family. My dad and sister are putting together a little family gathering at my favorite Ohio pizza place so I'll get to visit with my family and enjoy Pizza King pizza at the same time. What more can a girl ask for?! Kurt will be going with me, of course, so it will be our first official post-cancer/transplant trip. We're pretty excited to get back another piece of normalcy.

Kurt's brother, Kevin, visited us last week from Michigan and we had a really nice time with him. We did some sightseeing and lots of catching up. This is a picture from our outing to Venice Beach.

I wanted to end with something that's been on my mind more and more lately. As I've met people going through different stages of stem cell transplants, I'm realizing more and more how lucky I am that my sister was my bone marrow match. (Thanks again, Carrie!) One day at the clinic while we were both getting our transfusions for that week I talked to a girl that had a transplant from umbilical cord cells because her siblings weren't a match and a donor couldn't be found on the national registry. She had her transplant a couple weeks before me but was having many more complications than I had because of the lack of a really good match. And there are many people out there that can't find matches at all. If you're interested, adding yourself to the national registry is very easy and painless. You can get some great info at www.marrow.org.

Thanks to you all for for your love and support. And for reaching out through other methods to see how I am when I get a little lax on the blog updates. I'm reminded every day how lucky I am.