My History

I've been wanting to write a blog about my experiences for a while, but never did get around to it.
I've finally decided to sit down and sort it all out, so i'll start at the beginning, and add some blog entries from my diary.
Apologies if some entries are long, and also written in different tenses - it depends when I actually wrote them!

Thursday 26 January 2012

1 Year

So, here we are 1 year down the line. 1 whole year today since I received my sisters Stem Cells.

How are things you ask? Well, I'm sitting here writing this at work (it's quiet this morning).
There have been many ups and down, both in my 'health' life and my 'normal' life.
23rd September 2011 was the worst day. We lost our beloved Teagan to T-Cell Lymphoma. She had been diagnosed on 15th March and given 2 months to live. She managed until the end of August with no medication, then started on a high dose of steroids as she was incontinent (the tumours were pushing on her bladder). We swapper her to a low dose of steroids, and this helped her, but she started to decline, and on 23rd September, she looked at us both and told us it was time.
We took her for a last potter on the beach, bought her a box of 20 Chicken Nuggets from McDonalds, then took her to the vets.
She went peacefully with us both sitting on the floor with her, cuddling her 'baby' (teddy).
I miss her every day, but I know she's still in the house, sitting in her spot on the sofa. RIP My gorgeous baby Teagan.


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25th September saw me rather depressed with Teagans passing, and I went to pick up our 2 new additions....2 long haired Chihuahua brothers. They have settled in fantastically, and are a lovely addition to our house. November we got another 2 additions, 2 more kittens (we got 2 in August), bringing the pets total to 6! (We lost our Rabbits at the end of Summer)

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The end of October saw my scan and blood tests. The start of November saw the results, and being told I was allowed on Holiday (something I've been waiting for for a very long time!)
Here are the results of the PET scan... (Left side before transplant, right side end of October)
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As you can see, it's gone! I'm actually in remission!
Of course, with a transplant it's not always that simple, and it can return at any time. Luckily I can have a 'top up' of my sisters cells if they start to get low.
After the scan results I returned to work part time. Now i'm doing 4 mornings a week. It's extremely tiring, and I sleep a lot of my time off, but I'm so glad to be back doing something.

Unfortunately last night, we had to rush Little Kingsley to the vets, and he had to be put to sleep :(
His Kidneys had been failing for a while, but last night they went into the final stage, and the poisons in his body were affecting his brain.
Sleep Well my little man. We will never forget you.

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2 comments:

  1. Hi Heather - been following your blog for a while - was hoping you would update and I'm really glad things are better. I'm going to be having an allo for Hodgkin's in 2 weeks and your post gave me a little boost. Mine'll be a BEAM-Campath M-MUD - I'm at UCLH at the moment under Prof David Linch where your Dr Bloor trained.

    All the best,

    Luciano

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  2. Hi Heather,

    I have a quick question about your blog, would you mind emailing me when you get a chance?

    Thanks,

    Cameron

    ReplyDelete