T + 113 Steady as she Goes

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I braved the ice and snow to get to the transplant clinic today and it went well. It got off to a good start when the phlebotomist was able to get blood samples out of me on the first attempt ( it took five goes last time ).

I saw my consultant and he was very pleased with the reduced GVHD on my head and neck, the skin is only a little dry and the rash has all but gone. The plan now is to reduce the steroid dose further and see if the GVHD will stay away. So after tomorrow I will reduce the dose from 75mg to 50mg. Blood pressure was pretty normal so hopefully we can get the steroid dose down before it starts to affect that too adversely.

The stomach upsets and diarrhoea are a bit of a mystery still. The steroids can cause acid indigestion which I had a lot of to start with and I can take some ranitidine to alleviate that, but steroids don't usually cause diarrhoea and it responded too quickly ( and well ) to the immodium to be likely to be an extension of the GVHD. At the moment it is down as a JOOTT ( Just One Of Those Things ) and we shall see how it goes.

My stomach has been much better today and I was able to have a cheese sandwich for lunch without any side effects.

After the clinic I logged back on to work and have been getting more and more into the swing of things. It does leave me a bit tired at the end of the day partly due to rising earlier than I have been and partly from the mental effort of concentrating for long periods. ( Yes I know I'm not digging ditches for a living but pressing these keys can be hard graft sometimes ). 

Of an evening I very much veg out at the moment and am looking forward to a nice lie in on the weekend. Overtime I guess I will adjust to being more active as I get into the routine.

So for the time being general non-medical style posts might be in short supply ( is that a breath of relief I hear? ) unless of course the muse particularly strikes me.

One thing I ought to do is a bit of a review of the past year perhaps.

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