Hello friends & family,  

I cant believe it’s been since October that I have written an update. I am sorry this has been the case, but I have been a bit preoccupied. Those few months I have had my ups and downs. Warning: this is a little long.

The downs have been a 29-day stay in the hospital where I received my bone marrow transplant. Ten days of those were the worse of my life physically & spiritually. I will spare you the details of the physical aspect :-) . Twenty-nine days in the hospital is bad enough in itself. Discharge in February was one of my happiest days of this journey.

On the brighter side of this journey my doctor is very pleased. Just last week I received two pieces of good news. 1) My heart took no damage from the chemo. 2) My excessive blood on my brain (yes, I had brain bleeds) has dissipated & been absorbed back into my brain. The bleeds dried up, are breaking up & being re-absorbed. So it appears my brain is going to heal well. I am so grateful to be getting more of my functioning and memory back.

One of the reasons it took so long to write you is needing to getting organized around the mailings & finances. It took a month to get organized working in small chunks of time when I felt well. I now I have my finances under control (mostly) in terms of what I owe and to whom. And my file box (yes that old- fashioned way of organizing) set up. I still have about 5-10% of the mail to sort before feel completely on top of what I owe. I have received so many grants and individual donations that have helped survive thus far. I am grateful for that and for my Financial Navigator, Joy, assisting me through my Medicare process.

Medically, I now have 100% my cells replaced by my 31 y.o., male donor. Now they have to grow to a sustainable size.

I’m on day 65 of the 100-day journey. At 100 days I am released to go home. At that point I will need to be seen 2x/week, but one of them can be in Franklin.

Overall, I am very pleased with where I am on this journey. Grateful for each of you. And looking forward to a bright future.

Thank you.

Much Love,

A