Journal entry by Lisa Dusapin —
The last 2 weeks have been weeks of "re-staging" for me. That just means that I had to have an MRI, blood work, and another bone marrow biopsy to see if the stem cell transplant worked. I went to my Dr. on Thursday to find out the results.
He said that the bone marrow biopsy came back clean, so that's great news. That means there is no more cancer in my marrow at this point. The MRI still showed lesions all over my body, but he said those can take up to a year to heal and they are smaller, so that's also good news. They can't really call it "remission" since this cancer has no cure and will eventually come back, but for now we are going to take the good news and run with it!
In other news, my kidney Dr. told me that if I can get my numbers down to a certain point which is higher than he had previously told me, he would be willing to try to take me off of dialysis. This was GREAT news for me and gives me something to really look forward to. Honestly, I will be living with the cancer for the rest of my life, and I'm ok with that. That I have come to terms with, and the chemo isn't all that bad, I can absolutely hand that. But the dialysis is horrible. I hate it so much. It literally steals two full days of my life per week because I am so tired afterward that I can't really do much. My quality of life would be GREATLY improved if I could get off of the dialysis. The only way for me to do that is
1. have my kidneys heal themselves, or
2. get a transplant
I am not a candidate for a transplant because I can't get on the list due to the cancer. Of course if someone donated a kidney to me I could probably do it, but I don't know of many people willing to do that... so for now we hope that my kidneys can heal themselves. It's rare for that to happen if you have been on dialysis for over 6 months, which I have been, but my Dr. told me this week he took another patient off after a year, so there is hope! That is my new focus. I REALLY want to get off dialysis so when Covid is under control I can go on vacation with my family. So if you pray, or if you want to send good thoughts.. or whatever you do, focus that energy on getting these kidneys working again!
Thanks again for your continued support and love for my family and I. I am feeling better every day, and have more energy. I did over-do it on Monday which was my first day without Dustin, but I learned my lesson and have been taking it a little easier the rest of the week. But it was fun to bake some muffins, take the kids to lunch, go for short drives, and do "normal" things again. I will feel better every week and started rehab as well to gain back some of the muscle I lost while I was in the hospital. Things are starting to really look up! Now let's just focus on these kidneys!!!
He said that the bone marrow biopsy came back clean, so that's great news. That means there is no more cancer in my marrow at this point. The MRI still showed lesions all over my body, but he said those can take up to a year to heal and they are smaller, so that's also good news. They can't really call it "remission" since this cancer has no cure and will eventually come back, but for now we are going to take the good news and run with it!
In other news, my kidney Dr. told me that if I can get my numbers down to a certain point which is higher than he had previously told me, he would be willing to try to take me off of dialysis. This was GREAT news for me and gives me something to really look forward to. Honestly, I will be living with the cancer for the rest of my life, and I'm ok with that. That I have come to terms with, and the chemo isn't all that bad, I can absolutely hand that. But the dialysis is horrible. I hate it so much. It literally steals two full days of my life per week because I am so tired afterward that I can't really do much. My quality of life would be GREATLY improved if I could get off of the dialysis. The only way for me to do that is
1. have my kidneys heal themselves, or
2. get a transplant
I am not a candidate for a transplant because I can't get on the list due to the cancer. Of course if someone donated a kidney to me I could probably do it, but I don't know of many people willing to do that... so for now we hope that my kidneys can heal themselves. It's rare for that to happen if you have been on dialysis for over 6 months, which I have been, but my Dr. told me this week he took another patient off after a year, so there is hope! That is my new focus. I REALLY want to get off dialysis so when Covid is under control I can go on vacation with my family. So if you pray, or if you want to send good thoughts.. or whatever you do, focus that energy on getting these kidneys working again!
Thanks again for your continued support and love for my family and I. I am feeling better every day, and have more energy. I did over-do it on Monday which was my first day without Dustin, but I learned my lesson and have been taking it a little easier the rest of the week. But it was fun to bake some muffins, take the kids to lunch, go for short drives, and do "normal" things again. I will feel better every week and started rehab as well to gain back some of the muscle I lost while I was in the hospital. Things are starting to really look up! Now let's just focus on these kidneys!!!
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