Journal entry by Bethany Mayo —
It’s been awhile since my last post. I apologize. Today is day 343 since my BMT. Can’t believe we are coming up on a year!
Dennis and I made a few trips to Rochester in the last week to complete my yearly evaluations and tests. My bone marrow biopsy came back clear and still showing that I am 100% donor cells. Transplants can fail, so this is pretty amazing that I’m still hanging on to all donor cells.
I received a call tonight from my Dr. Letting me know that they got the PET scan results, there are a few spots that they are going to keep an eye on. Not concerning at this moment and may be just apart of Graft Vs Host Disease. Other than that, the Dr. Was very happy with the results and I am still in remission.
My pulmonary tests came back lower than I scored last year. This is most likely from the two separate cold viruses I tested positive for last week.
I am showing some signs of Graft vs Host Disease- its presenting as a rash on my face, dry eyes, mouth sore, severe joint pain and cramping in hands and feet. They started me on steroids, put me back onto the anti rejection meds and started a new medication, Jakafi that should hopefully show some improvements soon. I will also see a rheumatologist and ENT.
Overall I feel pretty good. I still don’t have a lot of energy, and if I exert myself too much I pay for it. It feels good to be back to a new normal. Ish. And now that all these tests are done for a while, I can breathe a little easier and enjoy the Holidays with our little family!
Cheers to Remission 🍻