Firstly the meeting with my consultant, Dr. Clark: for the results of the very accurate bone marrow tests. He was very pleased: there was only one Leukaemia cell in every ten thousand. I was given the impression that they do not achieve that degree of ‘cleanup’ in very many patients, and that my two immune systems should be able to find and deal with that relatively low number of rogue cells without them causing problems. My chimerism seems to be remaining fairly stable at about 10% ‘old me’ and 90% ‘French’ donor; apparently the actual percentage can very widely from patient to patient, the important thing is that it remains settled - so the likelihood of GvHD is minimised. When I decided to have the bone marrow transplant I knew that life beyond it might be dominated by Graft v Host Disease; it is amazing that I seem to have dodged it and that my quality of life now is as good as it is. They did say the match was a ‘very good’ one but I thought they were still hedging their bets.
Haemoglobin levels continue to rise slowly and are now round about 60% of normal... enough to do quite a lot; usually more than is good for me. Seems to take several days of feeling exhausted if I over do it !
At my top-up of Pentamidine session yesterday (3rd.,Feb.) the talk was centred round my CD4 levels. If they get above >200 the Pentamidine may no longer be necessary. What are CD4 cells you may ask? They are little clusters of a protein attached to surface of white blood cells known as ‘helper’ T-cells; they in turn stimulate lots of other cells in the blood stream to start fighting an infection. A normal healthy person would expect to have from between 500 to 1,200. If I can reach somewhere between 350 - 500 I will be a lot less susceptible to pneumonia and the Pentamidine can stop.
Blood is so much more complicated than I ever imagined; the human body is a miracle of evolutionary bio-engineering.
Way back in the Spring last year, when I was regaining my brain but was a bit of a physical wreck, I started looking at all possible ways of Energy Saving for the house and workshop. Alongside improving insulation (now completed) I also weighed-up the pros and cons of micro energy generation using wind, water, or sun.
We live surrounded by hills with the addition of a large Scotch Pine in the SW corner of the garden so the prevailing wind was very unlikely to ever produce enough power to justify the considerable capital cost of a ready made system. Access to a water supply with a good head on it was not really possible (although I did toy with the idea of using the stream across the road from us !) and again capital cost was a factor against.
With a SW and SE aspect on the house and workshop roofs, Solar Power seemed to be the only method that might be possible; BUT only because of government incentives - the pay back period without them was practically the life of the system.
So many months later, having worked my self through the bureaucracy of the governments Energy Saving Trust Loan Scheme, and the practicalities of assembling quotations from approved Microgeneration Installers; here we are....
An array of 10 Solar Photo Voltaic panels sitting on our roof happily generating over 1 kW of power in the winter sun. It is quite exciting to speculate on what the long Summer days will bring.
Ssh... don't ask about the shadow on the wall, I'm not supposed to be there.
