Oct. 22, 2010. Just got home from Texas; Roy had his 3 month check up yesterday and it was great. The doctor was very pleased. In fact he too him off three of his meds and is tapering off on another one and is to quit another one when he has finished the current round. They also gave him 5 of his childhood immunization shots and will give him more in January when he goes back. In January they will do a bone marrow biopsy but there is no reason it won't be good. The doctor didn't say, but I would imagine after his appointment in January Roy will be going back once a year, but we'll see.

Roy's bother, the stem cell donor, is building a house in Axtel, east of where he lives now, and they had a break in with copper wire being stolen. Tommy, the brother, told Roy he would pour a concrete slab if Roy would come down and stay out by the house until they move in. I don't know if Roy will or not. i have things to do so I might send him down by himself. The Baker family is having a get together Thanksgiving day and I want to be here for that, since I'm the elder of my generation and helping with it.

Since Roy is good, Trudi, our daughter in Florida, wants us to come down for Christmas. I have told Roy I want to go but got no reaction so perhaps I will have to go by myself.

It has been several months since posting but things have been going along very smoothly. Roy's last appointment at MD Anderson was July 20 and everything was good - all his blood counts were within the normal range and his bone marrow biopsy showed 1% blast and no leukemia cells. Dr. Ciurea told him he didn't need to see the doctor here in Topeka for blood work only once a month and he would see us back in Texas in October, but they wouldn't be doing a bone marrow biopsy at that time.

Since the weather has gotten cooler, Roy has been going out and doing yard work - mowing, cutting weeds, etc. Well this past week he was cutting brush and got into poison ivy and thinks it should be cleared up in 2 or 3 days, which is not the case. He is getting worried and upset because he thinks he might have done harm to his body since his immune system is nil so he wrote Dr. Ciurea about it and the doctor emaile him back and said there was nothing much he could do about it, just apply a cortisone type liquid. I think that made Roy feel better as he was sure he was going to be on the downslope and be back in the hospital. I tried to tell him that getting over poison ivy is not an overnight thing, but takes several days.

Also, in Sept. Roy had cataracts removed from his eyes. The doctor in July told him his health was good enough for him to have it done. He was anxious when he had the first one done but doing the second one was much easier for him. He goes back the 15th for a checkup so we will see what the doctor says about glasses and stuff. Right now he doesn't need glasses for driving but I am sure he will need something for reading and whether it will have to be prescription or not will remain to be seen. Cheapy glasses from WalMart.

So we go back to Houston the 20th of this month; probably leave home on the 18th and not try and make it in one day as that is a long trip for old folks. The 4th of October will be Roy's 7th month post-transplant and is still doing good. The RV is in the shop getting repairs so we haven't been able to go anywhere for a couple of months but when we get it back, I hope to be able to convince him we need to get out of Kansas for the winter. We'll see.