More blessings

Vlad is feeling very good and has had a remarkable result from his stem cell transplant. He has no signs of GvHD to date and all his checkups show he still has 100% donor blood running through his veins. We don't like to tempt fate by bragging about it, so we'll leave it at that. :)

He celebrates two birthdays every year now. One in March, the day he was born in Odessa, Ukraine, and one on Dec. 15, the day of his stem cell transplant in 2009 in Houston. His immune system rebooted that day and he subsequently took all the shots and vaccinations babies do. He's almost 54, and a little over 2 years old.

I write today because we have learned the identity of a very special person, Vlad's donor, the guy who gave some stem cells to save a stranger's life. A representative of the New York Blood Center, who works with the National Marrow Donor Program, gave us his name. He's a 30-something pediatrician in Connecticut and today we're working out what to say to him. How do you properly thank a complete stranger who saved your whole world? 

We're planning to meet him in person in New York at the end of March at a "Party for Life" dinner sponsored by the Marrow Foundation and the American Cancer Society. We couldn't be more excited.

And we celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary yesterday!

My dear Carol

My dear friend, who visited Vlad last December at M.D. Anderson, has been in the hospital herself with a devastating lung infection. She was in ICU for about 3 weeks and had some kind of brain event last weekend that has apparently affected her profoundly. The doctors say it's possible she could improve. Only time will tell.

I'm very sad today. I can't help but think about all the years we've been friends. We go back to 1979, NTSU. 31 years. We were roommates off and on through the years. We had ups and downs. She always has been a delicate flower, not the tough girl everyone knows. She is lovely.




Update: Saw Carol yesterday at the hospital. She appears to have paralysis on her left side. She responded by opening her eyes when I talked to her. She looked at me it seemed. But she struggled to keep her eyes open. It's impossible to make any conclusions. Time will tell.

Vlad, the baby

The fact we haven't updated this blog in some time, as you may suspect, is basically good news. Vlad is, knock on wood, continuing to do well. We try to remember he is still not 100%, but he does his best to let us forget.

I say Vlad, the baby, because last month (June 15 was 6 months) he got his first round of vaccinations, the same, presumably, that 6-month-old babies get. He had 5 shots in one day: 2 in each arm, one in the derrierre. He came home looking like a fish, nearly unable to move his arms from his sides. He became slightly sick, like a mild cold, in the days afterward, but never got to a fever stage. It was undoubtedly a normal response to the vaccinations. Still a little scary.

In Houston, we had one of the coldest winters in at least 25 years. It snowed 3 times. The following spring has been one of the most remarkable. More wildflowers than usual. And more hayfever. One pollen season blends into another and it's still going on. So it's hard to know who's "really sick" and who's just having an allergy attack. Including Vlad.

We're not going to travel because Vlad doesn't have vacation, and he needs to avoid crowds as a rule. He can't really be out in the sun much. He can't swim. So we've kind of decided to just take little mini-trips when the mood strikes us.

Besides, we've been busy getting the house together. We finally got a new couch; we were without one since Alex moved out early this year. We got rid of some furniture. Got some old furniture back from friends who borrowed it.

Vlad plays poker almost every weekend. I play occasionally. We got a new Dutch oven from Le Creuset with our Visa points. We've been having fun cooking in it. We're foodies.

We've had more layoffs at the Chronicle, so my professional life is difficult. There's a word. I work almost exclusively on news, four long days a week. I dont' know how long things will continue this way. What I'll be doing 6 months from now? News? Gardening? Sports? Or will I be laid off too? This roller coaster is all the excitement I can handle; who needs a vacation?

Love to you all; happy summer!

Day 125 - Another new normal

Vlad is doing very well. He's had a new job for two weeks and seems to be handling things well. It's hard to rein him in. He is a naturally gregarious and busy person and is difficult to contain these days.

He understands his limits only when he hits the wall. He always hits it full force. He will suddenly lose all his energy. You can see it in his face. He droops from the soul. Wherever we are, we head home. But even then, a nap is unlikely. He'll mess at his computer for hours.

Saturday we went to a family get-together at Alex and Kelley's apartment. It was mostly Kelley's family; her grandmother and an aunt were in from Michigan and they invited Vlad and I and Alex's mom, Lana, and her husband, John, and little Anna to come over and meet everyone.

I was nervous about going; I only had met a few people in Kelley's family and only briefly. But we had a great time; they were fun, interesting and kind. These folks were all Kathleen's family, Kelley's mother. (pictured with Alex and Kelley).

Alex was well at home with all of them, especially Kelley's younger cousins, who have a real fondness for Alex. Being there with all of them, it is easy to see they probably have a great future together. And we're happy for Alex. It's a great family. And he's happy. It doesn't get any better.

Alex cooked fajitas rather expertly just like his dad, so there were some familiar threads that made us feel very satisfied. It was an unexpectedly wonderful day.

Day 100 - My future's so bright ...

Yay! Awesome milestone.

Vlad saw his M.D. Anderson eye doctor today. She said his eyes are fine. His tear production is better than before the transplant. Opposite of the usual result.

He's had a contract job offer in the past couple of days, which is interesting. He's technically not supposed to work. But he's doing so much better than the other transplanters. (knock on wood.) He sees Alousi Monday. We'll see. Hmmm.

He's been working at home sporadically on a small contract gig translating a 400-page technical manual from English to Russian. The folks he's dealing with in Houston are great; the money has been a godsend. But the guy in Moscow is weird. Quitting may be the best option.

My job. Well, you have to laugh at the workload. It's an industry in free-fall. Survival dictates one just let the stress go, lest one have a stroke.

Sasha and Valiya came for dinner last night. We had food from Golden Grains, another Russian grocery I finally went to last week. It's run by a couple from Sochi (where the 2014 Winter Olympics will be). She makes all the fresh food, and it's pretty good and pretty fresh. I like this place better than the Russian General Store, which is crowded and has food that's not so fresh. Her Napoleon was lovely. And her Korean carrots were great. Anyway, we enjoyed ourselves. S&V are going to the Dominican Republic this weekend for a week at a resort with some New York friends. I've never seen them so excited about a trip.

Anyway, all is well, trying to creep toward normal, though, I don't trust it yet.

Day 98

Today Vlad and I attended the Survivorship Class. It was grounding to say the least. And profound for me. The teacher, Karen Stolar, an amazingly capable advanced-practice nurse, distilled the essence of what is our new normal for the next couple of years in 2.5 hours of analogies, Hints from Heloise and a bunch of frightening factoids that she made palatable with her cool kaffeeklatsch style.

The dangers of GvHD (Graft vs. Host Disease) -- which is when the donor-blood's immune system goes berserk in response to an injury, like a sunburn -- are breath-taking. Prevention is living a healthy lifestyle. For instance, Vlad must never again go in the sun without SPF 50 sunblock. For the rest of his life. A burn could lead to GvHD of the skin.

GvHD can hit any part of the body, just like cancer. It can show up in your mouth. Turn up on your legs. If you catch it early, it will likely be a minor inconvenience to fix it. If you let it go, it will develop into a monster problem. So vigilance is key.

There are lots of limitations. While he is taking the tacrolimus (Prograf), an immunosuppressive drug to help keep GvHD at bay, he keeps many food limitations. Plus no drinking. No sushi. He shouldn't go to crowded places without a mask, work in the garden or swim anywhere. No work yet, probably not till at least 6 months, which is June 15. His tacrolimus dosage will be evaluated around 6 months. He could come off it then, or not.

And there are new concerns. He's much more likely to contract skin cancer and heart disease. Osteoporosis is another one.

Still, as Karen said, he's lucky. There are tens of thousands of people who need stem cell transplants who have no donors and never get the live-saving treatment. So all the limitations are small potatoes in the scheme of things. And please think about becoming a donor. There were only two donors in the entire bank that matched him. If those two hadn't donated, I don't know where we'd be.

Anyway, we realized we had gotten way ahead of ourselves. He's doing really well -- for a transplant patient. He's still nowhere near normal. He still needs a lot of attention that I haven't been giving as much lately. Maybe I want him to be well; I will it and pretend. But he's very much in the thick of it.

So we were talking later today and decided our idea to do a cruise was a very bad one. We wanted to go to New York, but that's no good. Now we're thinking of renting a cabin somewhere on a river or a lake where Vlad can fish and I can watch birds and read. Maybe in the Hill Country. If you know of a place, give us a shout.

Odds and ends: Vlad had his "Day 100" biopsy Monday (Actually Day 97). Results to trickle in starting Monday March 29. We're looking for results to say he has close to 100% donor blood ... He did another sleep study and they found his oxygen during sleep dropped to 50%, which is really bad, so he has a new C-PAP machine coming. We hope this will help his fatigue as well. .... He still takes the magnesium, which is very unpleasant. Tacrolimus depletes the body's magnesium levels. ... I learned something interesting at class today: The body never gets rid of the iron we ingest: unless we bleed.

Day 79 - Happy Birthday!

Yesterday (Day 78) was Vlad's 52nd birthday, which has obvious significance, but it's also kind of a secondary anniversary, as it was two years ago yesterday that he got the initial diagnosis of AML. We were needing to see the ocean anyway, so Galveston was the obvious place to go for us to celebrate his improving health.

We walked around on the beach by the seawall for awhile at low tide. The shells had already been picked over by a dozen or so beachcombers, not that Galveston ever has great shelling. It was a sunny, slightly breezy day. Just beautiful for being there. We stopped for Ben & Jerry's. Then the beach. Then we found Murdochs was open, it had been since November we found out. I found a few things and we sat out on the verandah overlooking the water, like we used to do. We love that spot. It's cool to see familiarity.

We moseyed around and ended up at Gaido's for a wonderful birthday dinner. Fresh snapper and shrimp and bisque. We went to Fisherman's Wharf for coffee and to watch the birds in the harbor. We got a show from the cormorants. We made a video of their ridiculously loud sounds. It was a great day.

Vlad's going to the hospital twice a week now. He does infusions of magnesium every day at home and has blood work done at the hospital. They also do some infusions at MDA. He's started a new sleep study and is hoping to get a new CPAP machine to sleep better. He's working on stamina now. It's also kind of a confusing time. He's getting calls from recruiters and doesn't know if he'll be ready to take a contract job at Day 100 or whether his hospital schedule will interfere with all that.

I'm taking a few days off from work this week. Things are kind of manic there right now. I'm hoping the time off will help me find some calm, catch up on some things (I did get a hair cut finally).

Thanks for checking in. Here are some more photos:
I found "angel wings" shell. We kept it as a souvenir.

The verandah at Murdochs.

Laura at Murdochs.

Vlad at Gaido's.


Cormorants hanging out on the Elissa.