Day +212 // 7 Month update

7 months ago I was sitting in an office at the clinic in Monterrey with sweaty palms anxiously waiting for the doctor to walk in with my little bag of stem cells. HSCT although right in the name is a stem cell transplant, is really all about the chemo. Without the chemo, this treatment is nothing. But the day I got my stem cells back marked the beginning of a new immune system. I had no idea what to expect and I didn’t know what my future would hold but I knew that I had to do this. I had no regrets or second guessing and I feel like a superhero looking back on this past year.

This past month I’ve had the opportunity to share my HSCT story with more and more people and I love sharing this hope of a brighter future that I now have. Thank you to all of my friends and family and readers of this blog who have shared my story and asked questions about my journey. It is my goal to keep on spreading the word about this treatment until it is the first treatment recommended to people newly diagnosed with MS and other auto-immune diseases.

I am still doing great and feeling stronger and pretty asymptomatic. Things are warming up here in Michigan so I am looking forward to seeing how I tolerate the warmer weather. Last summer I could not be outside for too long because my vision would get so bad and I would have a hard time keeping my balance. So far my vision hasn’t gotten blurry at all since I got home from Mexico but lately I have noticed I lose my balance a little more than I have in the past couple months. I’ve been warned by doctors and HSCT veterans that when your body is fighting off an illness or you are stressed, it is common and normal for old MS symptoms to pop back up again temporarily. I’ve had a bit of a crazy couple of weeks dealing with my daughter fighting off yet another cold and we also had a close family friend pass away unexpectedly last week. So needless to say, my immune system is working hard and there is some stress going on. My balance issues aren’t concerning to me, but it is worth noting. I’m also still experiencing this weird burning feeling in my legs that I first noticed after my first round of chemo. Everything I’ve read said it is common with cyclophosphamide to cause neuropathy but my hematologist doesn’t think it is related.

I have not gotten any calls or emails from my neurologist regarding my MRIs that I got last month so I’m going to take that as there is nothing concerning to report. She told me she would contact me if there was anything new on the images and that if I didn’t hear from her, we would discuss them at my next appointment in September. No news is good news, I guess!

I don’t meet with me hematologist or my neurologist until September and at that point I’ll be about to celebrate my 1 year ‘stemmie birthday’! Time is FLYING!

My hair is still a big curly mess on my head and I’m not sure how I feel about it. It is growing fast, and I can see that by looking at my previous entries on this blog, but I sure do miss my pretty, long, blonde rainbow hair. It’ll get there! Until then, I’ll enjoy these chemo curls!! At least once a week I get a compliment from strangers on my hair and from people who I haven’t seen in a long time who tell me they like my haircut and that makes me happy that people think that I look like this on purpose 😉 It is hard to tell in the pictures because it is so curly, but my hair is almost 3 inches long!