Happy birthday to me!!!!
These past couple of weeks have been so surreal looking back on my “1 year ago today” memories. 365 days ago was such a happy, exciting, and emotional day getting my stem cells back followed by celebrating with my fellow stem cell brothers and sister before heading up to the rooftop terrace of our apartment to shave my head. I re-read my Day 0 post and I felt so overwhelmed with joy and happiness and memories. I’m so incredibly thankful for the 4 other patients that I got to know, along with their amazing caregivers, and not to mention the phenomenal staff and medical team in Mexico. I miss them all so much! So much has happened in one year and I can’t wait to see what this next year brings.
Earlier this month I met with my hematologist who has been monitoring my recovery since returning home and after meeting with him he officially released me from his care. My blood levels are now that of a normal, healthy, non-hsct patient! This was the first time getting my blood levels checked since returning home that I was normal for everything. He said that from here on out, my general practitioner will be able to tell if something is off because before now, had someone looked at my levels without knowing what to expect from someone who had been through this treatment, it would be pretty alarming. Now that I’m “normal,” I don’t have to be quite so worried about getting sick or being around sick people, which is a huge relief since my daughter recently started school again! If I come down with a fever and can’t get it down after a couple of days, he did tell me to still go to urgent care because I can still slip into neutropenia for the next year or so and that is when sepsis can quickly take over. I still have to be cautious, but not so over the top like I have been this year, although I’m sure I’ll still err on the side of caution.
Tomorrow morning I travel to the other side of the state for my second appointment with my neurologist. I’m looking forward to talking with her to see what I can do to proactively keep my symptoms at bay. My anxiety this month has gotten the better of me a couple of times and I’ve noticed some old MS symptoms pop up. I know that this is normal and to be expected and does not mean that treatment didn’t work, but it is so hard to convince my brain of that when I notice that my vision isn’t quite normal or I feel the brain fog or tingly toes. I am feeling SO much better than I was a year ago and as long as no new symptoms come up, I know that I am getting better and healing and well on my way to a life free of MS. My neurologist is going to have me get another set of brain and spine MRIs in a couple of months and then we will see if any changes have been made since my last scan.
I’ll be sure to update you all with what I find out at the neurologist, but for now, it is time to go get my daughter from school and then I think we will go get ice cream to celebrate my stemmie birthday!
Keep on keeping on, my friends!
Adios!
Adios, MS! 