GIVING THANKS

 

Life is precious.  Life is finite.  No one knows this more than a cancer patient.  And while most of us have much to be thankful for on Thanksgiving, Kristina is thankful for being here on Thanksgiving.  That and oh so much more.   To have gone three rounds with one of the most aggressive cancers over 16 years and feeling pretty good on this Thanksgiving Day leaves her somewhat shy on words (which in and of itself is a rare event!).

On the news front, she met with her new doctor and team and she’ll have appointments every 2 weeks for the next 6 months.  Her current condition is good – very good – and improving with exercise and fresh air being on the daily schedule.

In a chat yesterday, Kristina wanted to express her thankfulness.  Her thankfulness cup runneth over for many reasons.  She picked the right year to have her 3^rd round of AML.  She picked the right place to have it.  She picked the right community and the right caregivers.

None of these things were her choice, and yet that’s the circumstance she finds herself in and thankful for.  After years of little progress, treatment for AML has come a long, long way in recent years.  And there’s no better place than Fred Hutch to get the very best care, leveraging great talent with the recent medical advances.

And the community and caregivers (and it’s at this point during the conversation during our chat when words melted into quiet happy sobs.  Words weren’t there.  Replaced by emotional thankfulness). Kristina knows how lucky she is but doesn’t know the ‘why’.  Why 2023?  Why near Fred Hutch?  Why the greatest tribe one could hope for and why so many faithful and helpful caregivers. 

Kristina wanted to say ‘thank you’ over and over and over again.   A couple of others in our community didn’t survive to see this Thanksgiving Day.  Others are in their own battle with this miserable disease.  But on this day, Kristina is deeply thankful.  We all should be.  Kristina knows she could not have done this alone.

 

Happy Thanksgiving

 

 

PIVOT - ON TO THE NEXT PHASE

It’s been a while since the last post.  We’re at day 93 since the transplant and Kristina’s condition is awesome.  If it were her first battle of AML, she’d be doing very, very good.  Given it’s her third battle, she’s doing spectacular. 

In the next few days she’ll hit another pivotal milestone, transitioning from the ‘Orange Team’ on the 6th floor to the ‘Cedar Team’ on the 4th floor.  What, exactly does that mean?  In short, good news.  The care team that she’s leaving is focused on the transplant (remember the transplant song?).  The Orange team, combined with Kristina’s fighting spirit got her to and through the transplant.  Three months later it’s time to shift gears to a care team focused on more of the chronic conditions that come well after the transplant. 

While the posts have been quiet, Kristina hasn’t.  Last week there was a photography session documenting her flexibility, skin conditions, pictures of nails, etc.  Photos used as a point in time to view later for improvement or areas of concern. 

One disappointing aspect of that was seeing some of her pictures from previous years and just how long it takes for full recovery.  

Next week she’ll have her ‘departure conference’ from the Orange team and be introduced to her new care team. 

Her skin GVHD (Graft vs Host Disease) is fully resolved, but it’s still manifesting in her eyes.  That’s being mitigated by medication but medications bring their own issues.   

Kristina is still on several medications, each one having its own side effects.  She won’t be fully weaned from them until early next year which came as a disappointment to Kristina. 

In the meantime there’s PT, and in keeping with Kristina’s spirit, she takes a liberal view of what PT means.  It goes beyond the image we have in our head of ‘physical therapy’ and extends to walks in the woods and anticipation of the first snow.  Moving the body and gaining strength are the key goals of PT, but getting outside on varied terrain takes it to the next level. 

The journey continues.  Volatile ups and downs are (hopefully) a thing of the past.  The sustained gritty work of recovery, the work that in many ways never ends, continues.