Úna arrives today

I haven't seen Úna since January 25 so I am beyond excited about her upcoming trip. The photos below are her dressed ready for her first airplane ride. ( the hat was knit by me). Nora and Ainaté are following my dictum to dress children in bright colours when you travel,so you can spot them easily .

Saw Dr Nakamura yesterday. I see him twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays. It's very reassuring to have these regular check -ins with him. He is still very happy as am I although I have a very hard time believing that this saga might be over.  He has begun begun tapering some of my meds which is a good thing. But in the meantime I feel woozy betimes as my body gets used to this new regimen. We are still on track for the April 18 th "release" date. I will see dr Cecchi once a week and come down here to the City of Hope once a month

I will miss having Joanna and Steve around. They have taken excellent care of me and have taken their duties very seriously. You wouldn't believe that amount of rub a dub dubbing that needs to be done. Thanks a million Joanna and Steve.

And.....Thank you all for your continued support. I love hearing from you! Xxo

April 18th?

Not another photo Úna says.

On Tuesday Dr Nakamura whipped out a calendar and said that we should start planning my return home. Woo hoo. He jabbed his finger on April 18th and said that after I see him that day if all continues to go well, I could go home. As it turns out, Friday April 18th is Day 80 ( 80 days post transplant)). I still have a hard time believing my robust blood counts--- in particular the platelet count. For the past few weeks they have been hovering around the 100k mark which as most of you know, is amazing for me.

Joanna and Steve Davenport are here this week taking excellent care of me. As I write this, Steve is cooking up some delicious smelling hamburgers while Joanna is setting the table. I tell you in many ways this is the life of Riley --- whoever he is.

This morning Joanna, Steve and I took ourselves off to Santa Anita race track. Not to put money on the horses mind you but to watch them being exercised and to sit on the deck drinking coffee. (Our friend Judy from Indianapolis had told us about this). The setting of the track is magical with the mountains in the background. All manner of horses were strolling, trotting, and cantering. Really fun to watch. The only negative was that believe it or not it was a bit nippy . You can see in the pic that my scarf was put to good use.

100%/Day 50

A red letter day here today. Frank's bone marrow has engrafted totally on all three lines. In other words Frank's stem cells have done their job beautifully. Thank you donor Convery.  Dr Nakamura delighted as is Cechhi. I am thrilled too and I am surprised you didn't hear the family cheers when they got the news. As Ralph says" the misery was worth it"!

And today is day + 50. Half way to the 100 days.   ( 100 days is the period when I am most vulnerable to infection and that's why I am staying near the hospital )

Eoin and Sara are taking excellent care of me. They cooked up a delicious macaroni and cheese tonight. Yum!  And now we are about to watch "Frozen"

Úna with her early morning smiles

Frank and Jim wine tasting in January. All I will say is that it was good Eoin was the designated driver!

March 18th. Departure imminent

As I left the supermarket today I was once again amazed at the beautiful panorama of mountains straight ahead.  In the early evening all the features are more pronounced which is glorious.  How I'm going to miss all of this.  The weather is perfect.  Cool in the morning and evening and balmy during the day - perfect.  Judy left his morning to go to the track and meet some of the horse trainers that she knows.  Unfortunately since then she has been hanging around in airports with delayed flights but seems to be on her way to Indpls now.  We all hit it off really well and the house seems quiet without her.  My project for my time here was finished today.  See attached photo!  There is some doubt as to whether it is a cow or a donkey!!  Sile continues to improve a little bit each day.  Walking a little quicker and a little further and helping with the food preparation.  She is also the ipad tutor which has improved Judy and my skills immensely. I must sign off now.  I will really miss being here - the companionship with SIle, the beautiful scenery, the beautiful weather and the so so friendly people in the neighborhood.  Dublin see you soon!  I'll leave Sile to add a few lines not to mention photos.

Sile here. Will miss my minder Hazel! But....She won't miss earthquakes! She was rousted out of her bed at 6:30 am by a 4.4. Nor will she miss the endless hand washing. Or washing every food item that comes in the door. We are waiting for Eoin who is next up as minder in chief. He will have help in the form of Sara Murphy and Sarah Fairchild. Am I really that hard to take care of? ! Xxo

PS Dr Nakamura did not have the results yet of how much of donor Convery's marrow has taken over. Hopefully results will be in by Friday.

The cow!

Uneventful day: that's what we like!

 Sīle here. A lazy Sunday. Well at least for me. Hazel and Judy ( friend from Indianpolis)were out and about. More specifically they went to the Apple store in Pasadena. And Hazel got an IPod mini. Woohoo.

Another highlight from today. A longer uphill walk for me and a chat with a neighbor who invited us to see her magical backyard. I have never been in a place where people are so friendly. Our new BF, Kathleen Kelly, guess where her family is from, then invited us to help ourselves to lemons and tangerines. Now the larder is stocked with  citrus. Xxo

Úna in a hat I knit ( please don't look too carefully because there are a few boo boos)

Judy, Hazel and I in the backyard alluded to above. Swimming pool has been made into a koi pond 

Another Day in Monrovia ( + 43)

Hazel here.  I have just had a lesson from Sile on "how to use an iPad" and now I am practising.  This is my second attempt.  I seemed to manage to wipe out the first effort.  It all went blue and then disappeared!!  I think we missed out on a blog yesterday.  In fact it was a good day with no hospital visit.  I headed to the hills and had a 2 hour walk to the Monrovia Canyon Park.  It took me into a little bit of the San Gabriel mountains which are very picturesque beside us here.  We also managed to navigate to the laundromat without too many excitements.  Today was hospital visit again with great news - the blood counts are continuing to improve.  Hurrah.  And another big hurrah. NO cancer cells were detected in Sile's latest pathology report. In other word NO MDS cells and no blasts. Great news indeed. Dr Nakamura made an interesting observation.  It will be easy to recognize Frank's DNA as he has Y chromosomes!  Sile was pleased to show him her arm with no bruises.  The first time for nearly 2 years she reckons. My friend Judy from Indianapolis days arrives tomorrow. Looking forward to that.   I will be happy for her to take on some driving! We might venture further afield like on a Freeway.  Sile is suggesting to me that I should buy an iPad.  At least $100 cheaper here.  There is an Apple store in Pasadena which is pretty close on the freeway. Thought I had lost my blog again so I am going to stop now! 

Till tomorrow or later today. Hazel

Mornings can be nippy so long sleeves needed. Hazel in front of house

Shower heaven

Sile here. Very brief post as I am knackered. Why? The neighbors in our upscale 'hood had a party last night --- outside. Thumping music etc. Finally called Monrovia's finest at about 11:30. They came. Party stopped. 5 minutes later started again! Called again. Finally around midnight all quiet.

The high point of today was taking a shower with no picc line in. In other words I could just get into the shower. I didn't have to have my minder---Hazel at the moment--wrap my arm in plastic wrap--- always made me feel like a hunk of leftover ham! Have not been able to just hop into the shower since January 25! Ahhh the small things.

This is Úna this morning---March 12

This is Aoibh--- pronounced Eve--my great niece. Sheila's daughter, and hazel's granddaughter. Also taken this morning. In Ireland

Hazel's first blog attempt!

Hello everyone,

Here I am in sunny California living in a most beautiful old area called "Old Monrovia"  Many of the houses are wooden with shingles and beautifully maintained.  Our house is very large - had previously been an old folks care home!  With a beautiful wide wooden stair case.  The gardens remind me totally of Chris and Anne's in Spain with lots of succulents and trees with beautiful blossom.

I managed to drive Sile to the hospital for her appointments today.  Her blood counts are still good and she has finished her mycrofungin today and therefore was able to have the "line" removed from her arm.  Another step forward.  Now she only has routine appointments on Tuesdays and Fridays which makes her days and mine more flexible. 

I had a Baskin Robin yesterday and today I had a chat with the Girl Scouts selling their cookies outside the supermarket. Have talked to Judy so will meet up on Saturday.  I am a bit slow to drive on the Freeway so hopefully when she is here we will travel a bit further afield.  Sile is in good form managing to do some of the cooking  and generally look after hersellf.  She does a 20 minute walk round the block each evening with no difficulty even on the uphill bit.

As I sit here ther are loud baby noises coming from my left- Sile on her phone looking at messages from Úna.

That's about my news from today.  Try some more tomorrow.

Hazel

Síle's address until May ( or thereabouts)

The new address is in the contact us section--- or so I am told--- but I'll put it here too:

227, North Myrtle Avenue

Monrovia CA 91016

Tomorrow I have my favorite procedure--- a bone marrow biopsy. Ugh. This will be my 12th? In two years. But tomorrow's will let us know how much of Frank's bone marrow I actually have. So while I am not excited about the biopsy itself, it will be interesting to hear how the marrow is doing. 

A nice relaxing day here. The usual appointments followed by chats with Hazel and Jim. Resting. Walking. As today was Jim's birthday, Hazel cooked up a delicious dinner  followed by Christmas pudding for the birthday boy. Alas I was not able to partake as it is packed full of dried fruit which is a big no no on my diet. But.... It smelled delicious! And jim loved it. Thank you Aileen, ( my niece) for sending it

Xxo

Síle taking over

Hello everybody. This will be shortish. Well I will try....

My first " order of business" is to thank you all for your incredible show of love and support. You have no idea how much it helped to open my eyes in the hospital and see all those wonderful cards and to think of you all. You have really helped sustain me and uplift me with your many cards, emails, texts, gifts, comments and on and on. And you continue to do so. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

And to THE Blogging Team. I know how much you all appreciated them. What you don't know is that they would leave the hospital late totally knackered from the Sile minding. And even though I would say in my admittedly at times rare moments of lucidity that they didn't have to update the blog, you know what the response was.

We have moved into our house and Jim has worked tirelessly to make it feel like home. Many basics were missing. No drinking glasses. No oven. only 1 cooking pot. Etc. You get the idea. But now it is feeling very cosy indeed. 

I get stronger every day but it is slow. My blood counts are beautiful according to Dr Nakamura. For those of you who were so involved in the weekly platelet counts over the last 2 years, my platelets have been hovering around 93k. In other words I am swimming in platlelets. Thank you Frank!

My sister in law, Hazel,( Liam's wife), arrives from Ireland in about an hour. She  will be here for 10 days taking over the Sile minding duties. I will try to make it easy for her!

Finally. Here is Úna in pics taken today.( note ainate's cute nails)

Day +35 and +36 More transitions

(Posted by Jim, despite what it says at the bottom.)

Yesterday was a big day -- several hours at the hospital followed by a quick move from the Marriott Residence Inn to the 5-bedroom house in Monrovia.  It was tiring for all involved, which would be Sile and me.

First the good news... the very best news that we can all get.  Dr. Nakamura said Sile's "numbers" were "beautiful".  He's going to do a bone marrow biopsy on Tuesday to determine how much of the  marrow in Sile is Sile's and how much is Frank's.  He's expecting that something north of 90% will be Frank's.  We met a woman in the hospital yesterday who said her marrow was 100% her donor's, a terrific result.

Sile is still trying to get used to the idea that she has part of Frank inside her.  It's a lot easier to visualize, she said, when you think about a kidney or heart transplant.  There's major surgery; one part comes out; and someone else's part goes in.  With bone marrow, it's not something you think of as an organ (until you need a new one, of course) so it's harder to conceptualize.

This all came up this morning when Sile suddenly remembered that she had not yet received her monthly vitamin B12 injection.  She put it on her list of things to talk to Dr. N about and then said, "Wait a minute.  I wonder if I even need that any more.  Now that I have Frank's marrow I might not have to get that."  This is the second possible unexpected benefit from the transplant.  Even before Sile came to Southern California, her allergist told her that she might not need to take athsma medication after the transplant.  After all, athsma is essentially a reaction of the immune system and Frank's immune system may not be as sensitive as Sile's.

A third benefit of the transplant, totally unmentioned by the medical staff, is that Sile is free to live a life of crime, certain that she cannot be convicted on DNA evidence alone...as long as her DNA sample comes from blood.  The DNA in that sample will be a perfect match for Frank, not Sile.  So Frank...If you see the guys in suits with little white earpiece cords curling into their jackets knocking on your front door, you probably should ask them to wait just a minute while you call your sister and see what she's been up to.

The move to Monrovia was a bit more eventful than it should have been.  I found out later that we arrived pretty much just as the workmen left.  I also found out that Amanda, our landlady for the next 2 months. had been scrambling all week to get the house deep cleaned and get one of the showers fixed.  The previous tenants had been in the house for 5 months and left, according to Amanda, piles of trash in every room.  I had told Amanda why we were renting the house and about our concerns regarding cleanliness, so she was apalled at the mess left by the previous tenants.

She was in such a rush to get the plumbing and cleaning done that she didn't inspect the contents of the kitchen before we arrived.  Amanda greeted us and left and we began to unpack our groceries.  I suddenly realized that I couldn't find any cutlery.  There were plenty of little pottery tchotkes but no knives or forks!  Plenty of leftover staples (oil, flour, salt) but no glasses!  To make a long story short, I went to WalMart (5 minutes away) and partially restocked the kitchen so we had enough dishes and cutlery to make dinner.  I'm going back to WalMart later today to finish.  Amanda was horribly apologetic and, in fact, when I later delved into the dark recesses of the cupboards I found some cutlery, so the situation was not quite as dire as I first thought.

The house is a 1908 Craftsman, with all the charm and all the problems that come with an old house.  The house is big (5 bedrooms) and was used as a board-and-care home for elderly people for 20 years or so.  As a result, the mechanical systems (plumbing and electricity) are pretty up to date.  Nonetheless, there are the usual number of electric outlets that you find in each room of a 1908 house (one most of the time, 2 if the builder was being extravagant) and a 100-year history of "improvements".  The house is comfortable enough, though, and we feel lucky to have found it.

The final bit of big news today is that I'm retiring as a "Sile Transplanted" blogger.  Though I will be here until Tuesday, long enough to pass the baton to Hazel, Sile's sister in law, Sile is well enough at this point to take over her own blog.  Hurray, hurray, hurray!  

Day +34: Adieu from Ralph

Quiet day for Sile and me.  We went to City of Hope this morning for Sile's daily infusion of an infection fighting drug.  There was an uncharacteristic delay in getting the drug due to a computer snafu earlier in the morning. This stretched the hour and a half appointment to almost three hours, but we were still back in time for lunch.  Post lunch I headed for the pool and Sile took a rest.

Sile continues doing well.  Back pain still troubles her, but she is experiencing fatigue more than anything else.  As well as she's doing in general it is easy for me (and I think perhaps for her) to forget how much her body has been and is continuing to go through.  She will need to continue to take it slow and step by step, with plenty of rest at each juncture along the way.

Jim arrives tomorrow and I will head home.  According to the Master Schedule, compiled by Master Scheduler Eoin, I won't be back for a while.   I am not overwhelmed with sadness at this parting, though there are a few things I will miss.  These include:

1.  The LA Times.  What a pleasure to have a really good newspaper on hand every morning (the paper is complimentary here at the Marriott so all I have to do each morning is stroll down to the office to pick it up.)  And speaking of the Marriott...

2.  The friendly, competent, thoroughly nice people here at the Marriott Residence Inn.  All of us have been impressed with how well-run this place is, and how great it is to stay somewhere that is so competently managed.  And all of us have been impressed with how nice all the people working here are.  Which leads me to...

3.  Nice people everywhere.  The folks I have dealt with (cashiers at Trader Joes and Walgreens, nurses, doctors, strangers in the elevator) have, for the most part, been unfailingly polite and pleasant.  Given the poor regard us snobs up North have for LA,  this has been a welcome surprise.

4.  The pool at the Rose Bowl Acquatic Center.  50 meters, lovely setting, good temperature, and never more than one other person in my lane.  A definite A+ swimming facility.

And the things I will definitely not miss:

1.  The smog.  It's better since last week's rains, of course, but the sky is still murky.  And on many days I was here it was positively awful.  There are many places with worse air, I know, and it's not as bad as it used to be, I know, but still - bad air affects everything.

2.  The traffic.  The swish of traffic on the freeway is omnipresent.  

3.  Time spent inside my automobile.  (Note relationship between numbers 1,2, and 3).  We are fortunate here at the Residence Inn to be walking distance of restaurants and shopping, including Trader Joes, and I have strolled down with my shopping bags a number of times.  I am, however, in the minority on this - it's not part of the zeitgiest of the place, let us say.   Life is seriously attached to the automobile - whenever I left the hospital at night the nurses offered their farewells not with "Good night" or "See you tomorrow" but with a cheery "Drive safe!".  Every time.  

I'm sure I could come up with a few more complaints but I think I'll stop now, with the list of things I will miss edging out what I dislike by 1 item!

And so I bid farewell to Duarte and environs and to all you blog readers as well.  I leave you with this photo of Sile as she headed out for her evening stroll around the grounds of the Marriott:

Days +32 and +33: Moving Forward

Sile's wonderful friend Liz Muller has been here taking care of Sile for the past couple of days while Jim completed his jury service (now done - hurrah!).   I returned this afternoon to find Sile in fine fettle.  As I had noticed berfore when I was away for a week, the progress in the six days since I was last here is remarkable.  Sile is walking further and more steadily, is eating well and with good appetite, and is increasingly independent.  She saw Dr. Nakamura today for the first time in two weeks (he's been away at a conference and on vacation).  The good doctor reports her numbers are "as good as they get".  Music to our ears.  

We continue at the very comfortable Marriott Residence Inn until Friday when Sile will move to a rented house in nearby Monrovia until the end of April at least.  None of us has actually cast eyes upon the inside of said house yet, but the location is certainly ideal.  The house is about 10 minutes from City of Hope in a pleasant, leafy neighborhood of comfortable old houses, within walking distance of "Olde Monrovia", full of shops, restaurants, grocery store, and movie theater.  You can find the address in the "Contact Me" section at the top of the blog.  

And for all you Unaphiles out there:

She's learning to roll over!  Apparently Lola is her main teacher!

Day +31

Nora passed the baton to me last night and tried to go home. No dice!  Her 9 pm flight was delayed until 10:30 and then delayed again until 12:30 am. She decided that a night on the sofa bed in Monrovia was preferable to a 2 am arrival in Oakland so we changed her flight and she got home this am with no further difficulty.

Sile continues to get stronger and more "herself" every day. On the way to the hospital today she began telling me the proper route. I (not too gently) reminded her that I had driven that same route many, many times over the last month. She allowed as how that was true and we arrived at the City of Hope without incident.

One of the main challenges at this point is keeping track of all of Sile's meds. There are the morning pills, the mid-day pills, the evening pills, the pills not to be taken on days when certain tests are to be done, the weekend-only pills, the pills to be cut in half, the pills to be taken whenever she feels like it but no more than x times per day, and pills to be taken only when Pisces is in the western sky. Ok, I made that last one up, but all the rest are true. It's daunting. My inner techie wants to write an app to keep track of it all.  Maybe I will, maybe I will.

Sile's appetite is coming back and food is beginning to taste good again. Apparently last week some time she abandoned a banana because it tasted "weird", but this morning at breakfast bananas tasted good again. Blame the chemotherapy. Chemo really does do a number on your body. Sile has referred several times to "chemo brain". Apparently this is a well-known side effect of all the stuff they pumped into her over the last month.   She is distressed that she can't remember what someone wore to a wedding a few years ago (which she definitely would have remembered pre-chemo).  I, on the other hand, can't remember what I had for breakfast this morning.  Even with the chemo I think her memory is better than mine at this point.

The routine here in Monrovia revolves around Sile's daily visits to City of Hope. Other activities include hand washing, pill taking, walking around in circles in the hotel room (her, not me), washing fruit, more hand washing, and chatting. We had a visit today from Jo Wayles, a colleague and friend of Sile's dating back to Athenian School days. She was in town with her husband Alan and it was great to see them and catch up a bit.  It was also great to Sile able to sit up and chat for an hour with an old friend and thoroughly enjoy herself. What a change from two weeks ago!  Today Sile used the term "miraculous" to describe her journey over the last few weeks. I have to agree.