On June 24th 2016, I had the hematopoietic stem cells transplant performed at the saint Antoine Hospital in Paris (by Marie: it was a first time for her!).

Tomorrow, it will be the second anniversary of the transplant Hard to believe!

To “celebrate” this event, I decided to display a set of photos made during those two years,; I mean photos of me ;-)!

I have made  a slow recovery, but I am doing OK! I will never be the same as before, mainly because I am now a chimera, part of my old self, part of a lady!

Of course, if I am in pretty good shape, it is because of the fantastic work done by the team of doctors and nurses at Saint Antoine and in particular my kind graft doctor, my stem cells donor (she saved my life and I will never know who she is), and my family and friends (they are and have always been around to help and comfort me during the difficult days, and share the good days too!). I love you all!

Next week, I will have my regular apointment with my graft doctor. I will get the results from the blood analysis and the myelogram. I will post these results… Fingers crossed!

Last week, we spent some days in Ardèche: I took the oportunity to visit churches and find new Saint Antoines!

The day before: early june 2016. Short hair cut!

No hair! early july 2016

Going home: July 13th 2016

Dining out first time: October 2016

At home: hair are growing: spring of 2017

June 2017: Noirmoutier island: more hair!

September 2017: lake Ontario!

February 2018: Ontario

April 2018: Nanjing (China)

 

Following the advice of Marceline: hat and sunglasses!

June 2018: Mont Gerbier de Jonc…

And an Italian St Antoine sent to me by Nicole…

 

 

Last monday I had another round of photopheresis at the Saint Antoine hospital. This time, Nathalie was the nurse in charge of me.

This time, no blood sampling to make analysis, as I had a full analysis a week ago (remember the fainting guy? ;-)!). On the other hand, I was “the center” of attention, as we had the visit of a technicien from the company which is making the machine: she trained two nurses to use the new software of the machine.

Nathalie put me under the heating blanket, so I would have soft veins, and thus the pressure will be more regular…

To insert the needles in the veins, the nurse put a tourniquet on the arm and gave me a soft “ball” in my hand to squeeze . Last time, I “complained” about not having my usual heart-shaped ball. This time, Nathalie, remembering my comments, gave me a pink heart-shaped ball (see the photo at the top of the article): thank you so much Nathalie! All the nurses are so fantatic :-)!After a speedy process, less than two hours, I was able to leave the hospital, and I took a bus to go to work…

This morning, I did not come empty-handed: the day before, I prepared a carrot cake for my “good friends the nurses from the photopheresis”! If, one day, I don’t need anymore to have photopheresis, I will miss them a lot.

Speaking of this, I have to say that, if the physical part of the recovery is going well, since a few weeks, I started to worry for the future. In fact, I am afraid of being left “almost alone”, when the apointments with my graft doctor, the photopheresis nurses, etc, will be less and less frequent. After having discussed the point with my family and friends, I decided to look for some help, and had an apointment last week with the psychologist of the department of hematology. After this first discussion, I left her convinced that she will be able to help me. I will meet her again in two weeks. After all, I am not Superman;-)!

The second anniversary of the graft is pretty close, June 24th, and if I am living an almost “as before” life, it is because of the people who took care of me at the Saint Antoine hospital and in particular my fantastic graft doctor, of course my beautiful stem cells donor (I will never meet her…), not forgetting my family and my friends who made me laugh even in the most difficult times (remember belly dancing?). I love you all!