Just Another Day at MDA

Yesterday was my first visit to MDA for 2016. As I filled out my new planner for the year, I went through last year’s to transfer birthdays and such. Just out of curiosity, I counted how many times I went to MD Anderson in 2015. 52. An average of once a week. While I’ll often go several times in one week and then not again for a few, it was still quite a number…and that didn’t include physical therapy. I am optimistic that the number this year will be lower…due to less being wrong. But that is not the reason I am writing….

I have mentioned before that I always try to be a blessing in some small way to someone at MDA. I know what it’s like to be there, to be afraid, to have questions. Yesterday was no different. After my labs, I stopped in to the Stem Cell department to say hi to the ladies at the front desk. I knew that the main gal had been due to deliver her first baby in late December so I wanted to check and see if she had a safe delivery. A woman wearing a mask and who had lost all her hair was checking in, so I was waiting until she was done. While she was waiting for her paperwork, I asked if she was getting ready for a stem cell transplant and she said that she had just had one. She was 25 days out. She asked about me, and I told her that I was 3.5 years out. She just looked at me with my head full of hair and asked if I had any ongoing issues. I gently told her that there were a few, that everyone was different, but that it was worth every bit. The first year was the roughest. Drink, rest, walk, and keep believing. I remember those first months and how encouraging it was to see and talk to someone who had made it a little further down the road. Sometimes in life, we just need to open up and share with someone. You never know how it may effect them in that moment.

Later, I was getting on the elevator to go to my car, and an older gentleman allowed me to go first. He smiled at me and asked if I was a patient. I told him I was. He asked what I had and I told him Leukemia and that I’d had a stem cell transplant. He said that he had Multiple Myeloma and was about to have his second transplant. He had his first four years ago, just before mine. We discovered that we had the same doctor and the same team…. God, MDA, and Dr. Shah. ☺ He said that his numbers had “flat lined” for a while, and I laughed and said that wasn’t a term that I would particularly like to use in our cases! ☺ His crept back like mine did, but to a greater degree, and he now is going to need to go through the process again. He then said, “You are a beautiful lady; may I give you a kiss?!” What could I say?! “Sure!” I said with a grin. He sweetly kissed me on the cheek, stepped off the elevator on his floor, and wished me well. I’m not sure who blessed who this time. I forgot to ask him name. I’ll have to ask Dr. Shah so I can pray for him by name. What a dear.

Which brings me to my final thoughts. Many of you have asked me how I am, where things stand for me. In many ways, I have been wondering the same thing. They have been running dozens of tests trying to figure out the pain issues, which was why I was there yesterday. In a nutshell, my cancer is stable. For most of the past year, it has stayed in the 2-3% range. As long as it stays low like that, they will just leave it alone. My donor percentage has stayed around 95%. As long as it stays up there, they again will just leave it alone. So that is the prayer request regarding the leukemia…stay low. Donor cells stay up. Negative markers such as 17p deletion…do not come back.

With regard to my joint pain, they have no clue. All the tests have come back negative. They fall back on their favorite words for me like “immunodisregulation” and they have mentioned fibromyalgia. Whatever. They give me drugs, then they say that they really don’t want me on them long term. I go to the Pain Mgmt doctor tomorrow to see if he has any other bright ideas. Other than that, I am starting back to my exercise routine next week. Pray that I can get back at it and not croak!

Here’s to 2016! Health and blessings to you all. Seize the day!


“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Phillippians 3:12-14