The bottle countdown has restarted as we got one step closer to our journey home. Today I had a visit with the oral health team and was released noting no oral problems. They suggested I use a fluoride enhance toothpaste at bedtime and am cleared for the treatment for osteoporosis. Of interest is that unless I have a dental emergency, when I return home, I am to have no dental work or even a hygienist appointment until I am 1-year out from transplant.

In meeting with my clinical team today they also said I am cleared to go with final visits and staging next week. I have been taking a medication to combat CMV virus and that will end this coming Monday. I also take an antifungal medication to prevent fungal lung infections. As of tomorrow that will end. Next week my immunosuppressive drug cyclosporine will be placed on a taper schedule over the next 6-weeks, barring any incidence of GVHD. I can also cut back on my magnesium pills and it will be good to lessen the number of pills I take.

My scorecard is good today with the exception that my Hb/Hct dropped a bit to 9.9/29. That puts me squarely into an anemia state. This has not impacted my walking as I took two trips up the hill to the clinic and a total of 12,000 steps. Otherwise my platelets and wbc counts are stable. My kidneys are still squeezed although not as bad as earlier this week.

We have not yet begun to pack up, although after today’s visits we are motivated and will be packing and contact Apria home health to come pick up all of our oxygen equipment.

We will have one more hold in our bottle count to synch up to our last day here next week.

Larry and Sharon