Hi Everyone!

Last week I had my 9-month check-up and there was nothing but good news.  I do not seem to have any complications with Graft vs. Host Disease (GVHD), which is the major danger the doctors are watching for, so I'm considering myself very lucky that everything has gone so cleanly so far.

At the 9-month checkup they do not normally run another bone marrow biopsy unless there is some potential issue, so I don't have a lot of test results to report on.  However I do have a major milestone in the routine blood tests that I get every two weeks, and that is that for the first time in at least two years (since prior to when my condition was diagnosed) every single one of my blood test results was inside the normal range for males of my age!  That's great to see that everything is returning to normal.

I have started the process of trying to contact my donor.  The rules on this are strict:  You can't have any direct contact for at least a year, both parties have to agree to allow the contact, etc.  However I have heard that they may allow some edited messages to be sent as long as there is no personal or location information included.  So I'm doing the best I can to let my donor know that his/her donation was used, that the operation was a success and the outlook is looking very good, that I'm very, very grateful for their generosity in providing the donor cells that saved my life, and looking forward, should they wish to allow the contact, of learning more about them and sharing more about myself.  They will have the opportunity to know for the rest of their lives that their actions saved another person's life.  Plus I have pictures and movies that I took during the transfusion if they would like to know more about what happened to their donor cells.

In the meantime I am keeping very busy with activities at Point Lobos, with getting regular exercise (I just started running again--slowly), and in celebrating the birth of our third grandchild, Leo Kaestner, on August 28th.  

Medically, what's up for me next is the 1-year checkup, and if that goes well I will return to the care of the local oncologist, with Stanford checking up on me at least every year for possibly the rest of my life.

Peter