Great enGraftment

Today is day +31 since Arnie's transplant. Though he has good days and bad, we can definitely see improvement when we look week to week. Each Monday, we see he has made progress compared with the week before. His appetite is much better and his GI distress is a frequent but not constant problem. His rash is gone, but itching sometimes keeps him up at night. His sleep continues to be disrupted and fatigue is a common companion.

But....good news today! Arnie had a bone marrow biopsy on Friday. The biopsy tissue was examined for engraftment and chimerism. The SCCA Laboratory determined how much of the marrow had Arnie's 'tired old' cells and how much was from his stem cell donor. Yahoo!! 100% of the cells collected were from the donor. This is very, very good news indeed!! Great engraftment Batman!!

Yes, the stem cells from Arnie's 20 year old donor have definitely moved into Marrowville. Arnie has welcomed them with open arms and they have selected the best bunk-beds to settle into. The donor stem cells have increased Arnie's infection fighting white blood cells and improved his platelet count to ensure his blood will clot properly. His oxygen carrying hemoglobin is also doing just fine, thank you very much. This is all good news. Like all 20 year old males however, the donor cells have dropped their backpacks at the front door of Marrowville and left their shoes scattered about the entry way. They haven't made the bed in ages and their dirty clothes are lying on the bedroom floor. This may be why Arnie developed GVHD (a rash due to graft versus host disease) several days ago. With prednisone on board, the donor cells are starting to behave like better house guests.

Arnie and I have also learned a great deal since moving into our apartment here in Seattle. The Union Bay Apartments have served us very well and I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending them to others. Apartment living is never-the-less an adjustment after being a home owner for many years. As an example, I forgot to pay the rent at the beginning of March! There are other little annoyances. We have to run the range hood every time we make toast, fry food or bake anything to avoid the piercing sound of the smoke alarm. We have begun to recognize the baseline to our neighbour's favorite CD or 8-track. The city garbage and recycling trucks arrive once a week at 05:00 am to pick up industrial bins all along the adjacent alley. It seems to take about an hour of wrangling the containers while generating the maximum noise possible. We also enjoy the sound of little doggy footsteps racing back and forth overhead when it's playtime. Grrrrrrr. On the positive side, our landlady is wonderful. A cleaning lady arrives once a week to vacuum and clean the kitchen and bathroom and all requests for repairs are completed promptly. The custodian didn't even swat me when I firmly plugged the garburator with potato peels. Who knew??? I've had my garburator licence revoked...

We understand those of you in Saskatchewan are still living with snow and ice, so our annoyances are small. Arnie and I are content to be here right now. We think of you often and wish you all well.

Arnie & Brenda
#414 Union Bay Apartments
526 Yale Avenue North
Seattle Washington
98109 (206) 264-1943