I am fine. Continue from yesterday…
The result of the transplant is a change of blood to my sister's in my body and since our immune system is provided by the blood as one of its functions, effectively, I got a brand new immune system. But the new immune system is not exactly the same as my sister's, so it may fails to recognize some of my organs and starts to attack them. This is what we called graft-versus-host disease (GVHD).
The main challenge after the bone marrow transplant is the management of GVHD. Whenever there is sign of GVHD, the patients' immune system have to be suppressed through certain medication to avoid organ damages. On the other hand, suppressing the immune system too much defeat the purposes of transplant as the immune system might become too weak to clear the remaining cancer cells in the body. Therefore, this is a game of balance. A good haematologist must be a good game player in this field.
I am "fortunate" enough to have both acute and chronic GVHD, therefore, my immune system needs to be suppressed by taking immunosuppressive drugs such as Prednisolon (steroid) and Ciclosporin. With this, I found a very good and friendly reason to turn down any products that offer a boost to immune system :-)
However, it is most likely that only I and a few others who went through organ transplant could make use of the above reason.
To be continued and see you next post :-)
2 comments:
Hi David!
I must first apologise for having lost touch for a while now - my excuse is my degree! lol. But thank God, I've finally finished now, I got your email and perfect timing that was as well ;) I sat for my final paper for my LLB last Friday and the results will be out 24th June, graduation day 17th July. Hence notwithstanding the 'liberation' I'm feeling for not being cooped up in my study 24-7 anymore, the impending results are nervewrecking!
Nonetheless, I'm well - and with God's grace, leukaemia seems like a previous life now, it's surreal that I've experienced it. Judging from you colourful, full blogs, you're well too and living life, as they say :) well done, David, you very much deserve it.
Just thought I'd post a comment here as well. Just from the date of your post, I'm not sure if it's your past GVHD or if you're still facing GVHD symptoms? Nonetheless, I hope it's going well if you're still facing it - and all the best. It seems you've got everything down to a T that u might just give the doctors a run for their money! ;)
Anyhow, I'm just leaving a note saying hello and hope all's well. Good luck with your future undertakings and God bless always!
ps:your children are lovely! :)
Hi Sandra,
So glad to hear from you again, and a huge congratulation for you to be free again after all those 24-7 hard work :-)
I am very glad and thankful to God that you are doing so well, after the the turmoil in life, still manage to pursue a dream of your own :-) A brave, courageous and tough girl I see :-) I am encouraged.
There is no clear GVHD symptoms now, I wish that it remains history. However, Dr. Gan suspected that my lung might be affected by GVHD recently, so only after a high resolution CT Scan on 18/6/09 will reveal more. Hopefully, the lung is well :-)
Keep in touch and God bless always!
David
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