My MS Journey

This week marks the one year anniversary of my stem cell transplant. David and I made the trip yesterday to Cleveland for my one year follow up. My doctors are happy with where I am holding and things continue to remain stable. I have my ups and downs and I’m still working to manage my…

Happy half birthday to me! It’s hard to believe that it’s been six months since my stem cell transplant! Sorry, I had no updates sooner. I feel that I have been pretty much the same these last few months, which I guess is a good thing. Some days I feel like time is flying and…

Two weeks ago, David and I made the trip back to Cleveland. This time it was for my one-month follow up. Since my appointments started as early as 7:45 AM, we decided to stay the night before. We first met with the infectious disease (ID) doctor. He went over exactly what vaccines I need when.…

This experience was definitely a rollercoaster. There were some hard times but my mom and dad did their magic and figured everything out and also got us plenty of gifts. Over this time I got to see almost all my relatives, even my new baby cousin, who was very cute and chubby! One of the…

After staying in Cleveland for the week, on Wednesday, May 1st, I got the clearance to head back to Pittsburgh! It’s been exactly a month since we’ve been home. I still have to remember that even though my blood work is almost back to baseline, my immune system is extremely immature. Any childhood vaccination that…

Wednesday morning, April 24th, my nurse woke me up for morning meds. Normally I go right back to sleep, however, this time the nurse had the good news that my WBC went up to 1.26 and my ANC was 1.01. This is exactly what we were waiting for in order to be discharged! Well, not…

Monday, April 22nd, marks Day 12 post transplant. My White Blood Cell count started to slowly climb these past few days just as they predicted, which means my stem cells are slowly engrafting!! My neutrophil count is still not detectable, however, give it a few more days and that should start climbing too! I know…

Last week I was honored to have my parents come visit me, as well as my little sister, Hadassah. They went out of their way to make sure I was comfortable and that I had what I needed so that David could get some well deserved rest. Yesterday, April 16th, my sister, Rivky, came to…

Now that I finished my course of chemo and received my stem cells back, it will take time for my stem cells to engraft and bring up my numbers. With my numbers so low I am at a great risk for infection. My white blood cell count is nonexistent, making me neutropenic. My hemoglobin dipped…

Happy birthday to me! 🥳 Wednesday, April 10th, was stem cell transplant day. This day signifies the rebirth of my immune system after destroying it with all that chemo, a process that can take weeks to months. The nurse gave me my premeds, 30 minutes later my stem cells came from the stem cell lab.…