Back to the Blog

Finally I figured out how to get back in here to post on the blog. Yee Haw!

So, here's the latest update.

In March, after being sick in February, I found out that I had Large Granular Lympocyte Leukemia. What that means is that my white cells are not dying off, they aren't fighting off infections and they aren't letting young healthy white cells get in and do the job. I started a pill form of chemotheropy and went through a lot of different stages of illness. I had fevers, fatigue and slept a lot.

In late April I went to Jackson Hole and ended up in the hospital with secondary infections. They filled with antibiotics and kept me in ICU. I transfered to Poudre Valley Hospital here in Fort Collins and stayed a few more days before going home. The following ten days I had home care and recieved IV antibiotics twice a day. That's when my stomach freaked out. I couldn't eat much of anything without feeling like a war was going on in my belly. I could eat rice, and a few other things. That was mid May. Slowly over the months I figured out ways to eat more and settle my stomach (ginger ale, MMJ, Noosa Yogurt, Kay Williams' chicken soup...), but in the meantime I lost weight and was at one point down to 134 lbs. I also went through a period of severe dehydration around the fourth of July and was going in for IV's. I looked like a survivor of a POW camp.

At the beginning of September, they put me on a daily steriod. Something clicked. My stomach got better, I can eat about anything now, my weight is up to over 150 lbs and I have energy again. I hope it lasts when they take me off of them.

I'm still doing chemo, but while my red cell counts are up, the white cells are the same. It looks like they're going to change my chemo drug. We'll see what happens next!