Surprise! It's Margaret. Well, it wasn't quite cold enough for us in IL, so Amy took me to MN (Mayo Clinic) on Sunday, January 5th. We had good news! My heart has 'zero rejection'. The C4D test which scared everyone with a faint positive in November was negative. This confirms that I am not making donor specific antibodies, which would be very bad to make. My echocardiogram was unchanged. This is all very good news.
Not quite as good, my amyloidosis marker (Free Light Chain blood test) went up instead of down. I will send Mayo blood to retest in 6 weeks. In November, they reduced the frequency of the chemo, so we'll put it back to the old frequency if the number continues to rise. Not good, but not a serious problem.
I don't have to go back to the spa till my 3rd annual check-up in April or May. That's huge! I've been there 47 times since 2006. And soon they will stop doing heart biopsies. I've had 15 and they take 5 'bites' of my heart each time. (Gross, right?) This biopsy, the happy drugs must have been lighter than usual, cause I was fully aware every minute. I could have handed the guy things.
I'm trying a new B/P med. The previous one gave me dry mouth so bad it woke me all night long. And since I haven't slept well since transplant, I am exhausted. We'll see how the new one goes.
It was a quick trip (back Tuesday night) but Amy and I had many laughs. I really missed her when she spent 4 months in LA last year.
Stay warm and well. Margaret
