At the beginning of December 2012 I spent my first few days
in one of the isolation rooms up at Hammersmith, bringing home to me just how
vulnerable I was going to be during my transplant. I had my Hickman line
inserted and started the whole process of mobilising my stem cells ready for
collection. Then it was the 10 days of self-administered growth hormones,
injecting myself for the first time. Never been one to watch the needle go in,
so that came with its own set of challenges.
Tomorrow marks precisely one year since my stem cell
collection. As I said at the time, that turned out to be a massive tick in the
box, making all the associated bone pain well worthwhile. Since that day, my
cells have been cryogenically frozen in liquid nitrogen, warmed up in a nice
bath and then fed back into the poor sod that gave them away in the first
place. Most importantly, as of 31st January 2013, they started
growing healthy bone marrow and producing new blood cells.
How life moves on. From a difficult beginning I’m now back
at work pretty much full time and cycling around Richmond Park in the evenings….I
say cycling, Marcus does that, I just huff and puff, whinging about my lack of
breath and general fitness! As a family we’ve done more things in the second
part of this year, rather than saying we should. It all culminated a few weeks
ago in a dining experience up at Heston Blumenthal’s ‘Dinner’ restaurant at the
Mandarin Oriental Hotel in London. Admittedly, a delayed Christmas present from
last year, but what an experience it proved to be. Fortunately, one of our good
friends happened to know the GM up there very well, and was willing to put in a
good word for the Hoban’s. I’m sure it would have been a fantastic evening
anyway, but Paul went out of his way to make the occasion truly unforgettable.
We even got to sample Heston’s liquid nitrogen ice cream trolley….no stem cells
this time, just natural yogurt, cream, eggs, gloves, goggles and …errr…liquid nitrogen!!
From a health perspective, everything is stable, which is what
we like. I had my last set of blood results a couple of weeks ago and my
paraprotein level remained at 9. I’m still having my monthly Zometa infusion,
and I’ll continue with that until at least the middle of next year. Next
paraprotein level check is due mid-January, when I’m expecting my consultant to
give me the good news that a one year post transplant bone marrow biopsy is
needed…..something to look forward to early in the New Year.
As for Christmas, well, this year is going to be a more
social affair, now I’m allowed to mix with the great unwashed…well…family. Last
year was great with just the three of us, actually quite relaxing…the calm
before the storm. This year it’s going to be fantastic to spend Christmas with
all the family, but with a two year old nephew and four year old niece on the scene,
I’m expecting a storm…..at approx. 5am Christmas morning. Joy!!
