Time Passes Quickly (D+80)

"Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away." - Marcus Aurelius

I realized I hadn't posted an update for a while. Guess I've been negligent...sorry.

It's already 80 days post transplant! I can hardly believe it. The bottom line is everything is going well. Elise's blood counts are good, but don't look as good as I'd expect, but I'm not the medical team. They assure me everything is going well. So I ask questions and get reassurances. At least it gives us something to talk about. Elise does have a rhinovirus (i.e. headcold) that she probably picked up on our trip, but the Drs have told us not to worry. It's not the EV-D68 virus in the news or influenza (they ran a test today), just a normal head cold that will pass.

Elise is down to once a week tests and visits with the medical team and gradually the list of medications she has to take are reducing as well. They have started tapering her prednisone dose although we don't think it'll get to zero for quite a while since her underlying colitis will take a while to heal (maybe a year). She'll likely be on several of the medications for a full year post transplant, but we'll see.

Today we actually discussed coming home with the team. They have a protocol for the 100-day release and we talked a few more details of what that would encompass. Mostly we talked about timing as we're actually at the point of making some plans. Elise is within 3 weeks of being released to come home. We've contacted Childrens Hospital LA to arrange follow-on care with their BMT team and I signed releases today to send all the medical records to Elise's Dr's at home.

Last week was a fun filled week. It was the anniversary of Becky's 29th birthday so we decided to go to Ocean City, MD for a couple days after her Tuesday medical visits. After Ocean City, we drove to Assateague Island to see the wild ponies (of "Misty of Chincoteague" fame). After that we went on to Williamsburg, VA to visit Colonial Williamsburg (Elise's 8th grade history covers early American history). We started the week with a visit to the White House that I'd arranged earlier.

I don't know how we're going to pack up everything we want to bring home, but I guess we got most of it here in suitcases on an airplane so it's all gotta fit in the Toyota - right? We're going to donate the furniture and housewares we bought to a charity that I contacted today. We also bought a rooftop cargo box for the car. And I've been telling Becky that she has to throw away something every time she buys something. I don't think this latter tactic is working.