I'm in remission!

And I quote (Dr. Smith): "You're in remission. Congratulations. Good job!"

My preliminary results show that my marrow is leukemia-free. The test that shows how much is my blood/my donor's blood won't be in until later in the week, and the cytogenetics test is still pending, too. But Dr. Smith said he doesn't anticipate any bad results, so I'm relieved for the time being. Let's just say it was a bit of a tense day - I thought I was going to hyperventilate/vomit while I was waiting for our appointment - we literally stared at the wall for over an hour while we waited for them to call us back. Now I'm going in on Friday to have my Hickman catheter removed, which will be really weird. It's been like, a part of my body, my security blanket, for almost 5 months.

But this is just the beginning - I've got a L-O-N-G ways to go. I'll be going in to Hopkins every other week (I think) for blood tests, just to have my counts checked and make sure everything is stable. This continues (assuming I stay stable) until my 6 month mark, November 15th, 2009, when I'll have my 6 month bone marrow biopsy. This is another big big milestone. Then of course there's the 1 year biopsy. This continues for 5 years - at the 5 year mark, they sort of consider you cured - a relapse after 5 years is very unlikely. Gus said they will never say "you're cured," but the 5 year mark is a big one.

So it's great news for now, but I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea as to whether I'm "cured" or not. I'm not. Hopefully I will be, eventually, and this is a good start, but I'm still just a baby (only 60 days old!) and I need to be super careful for the next year while my immune system recovers. This means no flying (on airplanes) for a while, wearing my mask in public for a while, avoiding crowds, being careful in restaurants (no un-cooked veggies, no raw sushi), not being able to be around kids, etc. I've still got to maintain the diligent hand-washing/Purelling and stay germ and infection-free! So far, so good!

So that's my news. I'm trying to relax and enjoy the good news, but at the same time, remain realistic and cautious and remember that I've got a long way to go. It would be so easy to become complacent and just return to life as normal, but that won't happen for a while!