I Am Woman

The first half of this week featured a sequel to last week's intestinal distress. Like most sequels, it didn't live up to the original, at least in intensity. Also, it was too long. Instead of all the symptoms combining on a single day, this time each symptom got its own day: Diarrhea Monday, Upchuck Tuesday, Nausea Wednesday. Di and Chuck just mailed it in, if you ask me. In Act Three, however, Nausea, merely a supporting player in the original, stole the show. I was so impressed, I had to go to bed around 6:00 pm and not get up until this morning.

I checked in with my doctor on Tuesday. As long as these symptoms come and go, without fever, and not too often, we (I) will just ride them out. If the symptoms persist, I'll get scoped. Colonoscopy, sigmoidoscopy... I don't know. Seems viral for now, but it could be a manifestation of graft-vs-host disease.

My doctor also had the second round of results from my bone marrow biopsy. Round One was that I have strong numbers of all the right kinds of blood cells in my marrow. Round Two is that the blood cells are more than 99% female — XX, not XY. (Or, as Sen. John "Not Meant To Be Factual" Kyl of Arizona would put it, my blood cells are more than 99% male.)

Since my donor was my sister, this is excellent news. The less host (XY) blood there is, the more successful the transplant has been, and the less chance there is for any leukemia to have made it through the treatment.

The final result we're waiting for is whether there are any cells with "deletion 7": chromosome 7 missing some genetic material. My leukemic cells had this marker, so they will be relatively easy to find if any have made it. I should find out Monday.

Until then, I'm very happy that my blood is (almost) all woman. Hear me roar.