It is probably impossible to predict what will become “routine” for us, but clearly, we are not there yet. It seems that now our number of MSK visits increased, with the symptoms I described last time (neuropathy, rashes and swelling in my feet and ankles). This coming week we will spend 3 days, visiting various MSK facilities to see a physiotherapist, lymphedema expert (both for the swelling), and dermatologist (for the rash). Also, I’ll have the 3-months post-transplant bone-marrow biopsy, to search again for any sign of cancer, and more generally see how the new immune system is doing. We spend a lot of time on the road, and while being excellent quality time, we sure hope that we’ll need to drive for far less for such purposes relatively soon. If you are wondering, I can drive perfectly by myself, but Edna prefers to come to all these meetings and hear herself what all these experts are saying, plus is still worried something might to me which will require her presence – the importance of these aspects will hopefully also shrink with time.
Otherwise I try to bike a lot, to IAS in particular, and today Edna and I took a long walk along the Princeton canal – you can see in the picture that it was a really nice (and cold) day after a week of clouds. On Edna’s brother’s suggestion, I also attach a picture with him on the tiger outside of Nassau Hall – we had taken a similar picture when he was visiting in the summer (see the September 16 post to compare). Actually, it is hard to tell much from the pictures themselves, but it struck him how now I was able to jump on the tiger’s back – something trivial compared to most of my activities now –whereas then it looked like a mountain that requires careful, deliberate and slow climbing (due to my weakness combined with terrible back pains). So, a lot has clearly changed; I haven’t been in such physical shape for 2.5 years. As my hemoglobin is still a little over 9, I expect it will even improve when it climbs higher (it should...).
