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Plateau

Hi there guys and gals, I am checking in from what seems like a long time away. Not much new to report which is why I have been writing less frequently, outside of my thoughts in relation to whatever, there isn’t much new happening with respect to my condition but I will pass along the few things I can think of.

Throughout the past couple of months I have been losing my hair, which I may have mentioned, at first I thought this was nature taking it’s course, but after checking with my Doc she informed me that it could very easily be something else. At the same time my hair began to shed I developed a “lump” in my chest, left side, which became very tender and sore for quite a while. These symptoms were somewhat familiar to my Doc but she arranged for me to see a Surgical Oncologist to be sure. So a few weeks ago I saw Dr. George who confirmed my Doctors initial thoughts, and assured me that my lump was quite common in transplant patients, but again to be sure he booked me for a ultrasound. It was negative and I am due to see him again this week, but all things appear fine. My hair loss and lump are a result of prolonged steroid use, Prednisone, and as he said it is quite common in transplant patients.

At present I am still on 5 mg of Prednisone a day, and will hopefully begin to drop that dose this week as my counts have been stable for the past several weeks. In simple terms, which is how it was explained to me, prolonged steroid use can often result in an imbalance in the bodies natural steroid levels. This will most always correct itself after a short time of being steroid free. Either way I thought it was a good excuse to shave my head, which I have been wanting to do for a while now, and should my hair line continue to slide back I will most definitely be taking the razor to my head. I mentioned my counts have been solid well they are standing at the following levels, Hemoglobin – 117, Platelets 126, White cells – 3.1, Nutrophils – 2.0, which are definitely acceptable but not outstanding. They have hit a plateau and with the exception of a couple of weeks they have been at or around those levels for a couple of months. Some weeks they will dip down and others they will rise a little for no apparent reason, but at least they are stable. If things can remain that way for a while it will go a long way to helping me get off the Prednisone.

While things on the medical side have hit a plateau I have started to make some progress in other areas, such as Healthcare. I should underline the word SOME before progress but we have to start somewhere. This Thursday morning I will be attending my first “Consumer Feedback Committee” meeting, that consists of an unknown number of bureaucrats, and ME, one patient. I won’t criticize as I really have no real idea of what they do. But they have given me an invitation to the party, and as always I will keep you posted on what happens.

In addition to continuing my quest to make an impression within the Healthcare environment I have been writing a lot lately and am really looking forward to beginning the learning curve associated with writing and publishing a book. I will begin to climb that curve soon I suspect, as my energy is stabilizing and allowing me to actually make a plan, and follow through with it. All thoughts relating to working are unknown recently. For so long I felt that all I wanted to do was get back to work, but lately I really feel that I don’t want to go back to doing what I was doing before. In some respects I do, but the chasing/hunting and giving myself to any and all, I don’t think I’m up for that anymore. We’ll see how this feeling develops as working becomes more of an option, but right now going back to the same situation as before seems unlikely. That doesn’t mean I won’t work in the same field or do some of the same things, but I do think that I won’t do things the same way.

I think that is everything for now, I’ll keep you in the loop regarding the weeks events and as always I’d love to hear how you are doing. By the way anyone have any idea what anniversary is approaching?
Take care,

Geoff
#4

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