Return Journey Home

We are finally home!

Jeramy is happy to be back as he has spent the last few days feeling very sore and painful from the excessive amounts of bone marrow that have been proliferating in his system. Our trip home required wheelchair assistance as Jeramy was very limited on the distances he could walk. We had planned to go out to dinner last night to celebrate, but he was in so much discomfort we took the advice of the hotel concierge and ordered in from a local Chinese restaurant. We were very pleased with the food and the suggestion and spent the evening laid up in bed watching movies.

We found out that the bone marrow donation had been a total success and Jeramy had actually exceeded the required amount of stem cells needed for the transplant (this is good news for the patient and for us).

This morning I packed up most of our stuff and we headed out. The flight was very uncomfortable for Jeramy with turbulence and bumps, but fortunately we were bumped to first class and so it made the trip a little more easy to tolerate.

I also received news back yesterday that I have been diagnosed with focal epilepsy and that I will likely require additional medication changes in the future. This was actually relieving news for me as I have been struggling with why I can't progress my activity tolerance and now I finally have some answers. I brought this information to Dr. Baronia's attention and he assured me that EEG changes are common and it takes time for those to adjust. I trust him completely and he still feels confident that things will improve later so that made me feel much better. In the meantime I will be able to continue with yoga activities, but I will have to slow my pace significantly and listen to what my body is telling me as my symptoms seem to correlate specifically with increased physical stress. I think the neurologist feels that I am still experiencing seizure activity, but that my large seizure activity is better controlled now. I am coming to terms with the fact that it may be at least a year if not longer before I am able to return to my favorite activity of running.

All in all, I feel that this past 4 days has been very successful and very eventful. I am looking forward to what the future holds and I will be greeting each day with a new respect for life.

Bone Marrow Update

Hello everyone!

This is the first post from our bone marrow experience in Dallas. We have been in Dallas since Friday, but we have been out and about celebrating Jeramy's 35th birthday, so I have not had an opportunity to update my blog on this experience.

Friday night we went out with Kyle, April and other friends to Top Golf The Colony. It was a very pleasant experience and we had a very enjoyable time catching up with friends and touching up my golfing skills (or lack there of). I still managed to get 3rd place out of the 9 of us :).

Saturday we went to brunch at Whiskey Cake. It was probably one of the best places we've eaten in terms of restaurants. I will plan to return there. We then did a little shopping over at Academy before we took the DART rail down from Plano to Uptown and decided to hop on the free trolley to traverse the area to see about finding a location to watch the Belmont Stakes race. We stopped by McKinney Avenue Tavern (or MATs) that is owned by Big Al Mac from the Kidd Kraddick radio show. It was quite possibly the worst experience we had ever had, so we took our business across the street where we were treated kindly and were glad to spend our money. That waitress probably received more tip from us than the other waitress working on the frat party across the street (I've bartended before and I know how Frat parties don't tip). Thankfully we were able to partake in watching the race with no interruptions and great seating and delicious food. It ended up being a much better time than it started out as. Our time out was limited due to Jeramy experiencing side effects from the Filagrastim injections he has been receiving for the past few days, which cause him to experience bone pain, muscle aches and fatigue due to over proliferation of stem cells in his bone marrow. It is funny because now I am on the other side of it, whereas just a few months ago I was the one who required constant supervision, etc.

Today we woke up early and Kyle cooked breakfast for us before we went down to Shops At Legacy and did some shopping and then finished off with lunch at Razoo's. We went and saw the movie Entourage and then Kyle dropped us off at the hotel on his way back to Rockwall. The remainder of the evening will involve room service and movies since both Jeramy and I are incredibly fatigued from all the weekend activities and need to spend some time recovering before we start up with the next phase. My next blog update will likely happen Tuesday or Wednesday because I am not sure what to expect the next few days. Thank you to everyone who has been super supportive of Jeramy and we are so excited to Be the Match for someone in need. This could be the life saving measure for someone and I am so incredibly grateful that I get to be a part of this experience.