Today is my Transplant Plus 2 Years Anniversary!

I am happy to be where I am today. Not perfect, but doing exceptionally well. My blood counts are good, but I have a few chemistry deficiencies. They will check my blood chemistry again in a few weeks with my port flush. Thank you all for your support when we really needed it and for keeping up with us since.

I very likely would have been sick again by now without the transplant and the maintenance Rituxan. They had given me a year and a half to two maximum without he stem cell transplant.

We (Karin, Bennett and myself) travelled to Atlanta Saturday. The Blood & Marrow Transplant group had their first “Celebration of Transplant” reunion of former patients and families at the Georgia Aquarium. There were 150 survivors and roughly 600 with family and staff. It was amazing. We were in a large ballroom located in between the tank with the Beluga Whales and the tank with the 4 Whale Sharks. We had a very private setting to observe the aquarium away from the general population.
I was able to see 5 other patients that were in the clinic during the same time with me in the Fall of 2006. All were doing well. Some had taken much longer to get well than me. Kevin, Bill, Brad, Florence, and others that I can’t remember your names, it was so great to see you. I have prayed for you all. I wish I knew how a few others were doing, but the staff can’t really tell us anything about them with all of the medical privacy laws.

There were a few speakers. There was a fantastic lunch catered by a Wolfgang Puck catering group. They took a group photo of all the survivors. I hope to see it in the clinic next year. It was their first reunion and it was bigger and better than they had originally expected. I met one of their earlier patients (transplant 9 years ago) from Boston. It was great to see many of the staff. Quite a few couldn’t be there because they had a very full clinic with 26 patients that day. All 4 of the physicians were there and the founding physician from Ireland was there also. It was too short. I should have taken in more and searched out for any other familiar faces. Bennett was pretty well behaved to not be 3 years old yet, and having spent 4 hours in the car on the way up.



After the event, we spend some time in the other parts of the Aquarium. It was packed and very loud. I guess this is to be expected on a drizzly Saturday afternoon. Bennett was 2 inches too short to play in the play area and he is too small for most of the touch pools at the animal tanks.

We leave the Aquarium and head to our hotel before getting dinner. We opt to not visit the Light The Night Walk due to the long day. We introduce Bennett to our room (a 2 Bedroom & 2 Bath suite) before we go to dinner. He did well through the night.

Sunday am, Bennett eats like a man at the Breakfast Buffet. We take him for a ride on Marta before we head back to Savannah. He had fun (except for the man that Bennett inquired “What is that smell mommy? Something smells like garbage.” What do you say to that? With the newly potty trained boy we stop for many frequent pees on I-16’s shoulder, a new adventure for us.

We had a great trip.

Mark