I have been silent for quite a long time… but it is not for health related problems! It is just that I was busy traveling: Canada and the US!

We went to Toronto to visit our daughter and her husband. We left France in the spring and arrived in Canada in the winter :-)! Freezing temperatures, snow, rain, wind!

Then, we visited our friends in Boulder-Colorado, a place I visited many times when I was allowed to work in a chemistry lab, to make it short, during my first life :-)!

We climbed the high mountains (3000 m) in deep snow and low temperatures. But because of my new high quality red blood cells I had no problem to perform this exploit! A few places we visited: mud lake (Nederland-Colorado), Brainard lake (Ward-Colorado), Bear Lake, Nymph Lake and Dream Lake (all in the Rocky Mountain National Park)…

We shared lunchs/dinners with our friends in Boulder, and I was able to show them my new hobby: making real “brioches”!

After, we went back to Toronto for an another week, then moved back to France to find again the Spring :-)!

Here are some photos taken during this trip…

First Toronto:

Colorado:

My famous brioches:

Spring in our garden in Bures:

If I can travel freely those days, it is because I had the enormous chance to meet fantastic people at the Saint Antoine hospital and in particular my wonderful graft doctor, my donor who gave me the chance to live my second life, and my family and friends who supported me so well… I love you all :-)!

Last wednesday, I had an apointment at the Tenon hospital-department of dermatology to remove another carcinoma, the one located at the back of the skull.This time no surgery (well at least for this time!). The principe of this technique is simple: first a cream containing a photosensitizer is applied on the carcinoma. I had to wait 3 to 4 hours before the second step (the photosensitizer is supposed to enter the skin during this time). Then a strong light is focused on the carcinoma during several minutes (a little painful, it is like a local burn). Pretty simple no? Results will be checked in 3 months.

A much better description of the technique can be found at:

https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/types/surgery/photodynamic-fact-sheet

The dermatologist looked also at my body to discover if a new carcinoma had appeared, and also to check for some cGVH in the mouth and on the sexe: according to him nothing (however when I will meet with my kind graft doctor next june, I will ask her again about the GVH: she is a specialist!).

Beside, last week, as requested by my graft doctor, I did a full blood analysis: according to my kind doctor, the analysis is perfect!

The only difficult point for me is the fact that I am always tired, even when I do just a little gardening. It is disturbing and it is not going away…

But the spring is there, with some sun and a lot of flowers in our garden…

Lunch at the hospital…

With love!

Today is Women’s day! For me, as a chimera half-man half-woman, it will be only “half a women’s day” ah ah! But I will celebrate anyway!

Friday afternoon is the day when I am working on stained glass: I will ask my teacher to pay only half the fee :-)!

I am almost 33 months after the stem cells graft. My blood analysis is kind of perfect. I might have still a little bit of GVHc, but it keeps coming and going, mainly in the mouth and on the sexe… In two weeks, I will meet a dermatologist for another turn of phototherapy (a carcinoma to remove). I will ask her what she thinks… Anyway no big deal!

To celebrate this special day, here is a song by J. Ferrat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuLWhwzmgZo

based on a poem by Aragon:

http://muze15.canalblog.com/archives/2011/07/17/21598991.html

I will not leave this post without thanking the fantastic team at Saint Antoine hospital and in particular my kind graft doctor , my anonymous donor, my wonderful family and my friends: I love you all!

Take care and enjoy life!

Today I would like to introduce a “new”artistic activity I started a few months ago: clay modeling.

After I had to stop to do experiments by myself in a chemistry lab a few years ago, i became somehow “frustrated” by not having anymore the oportunity to work with my hands, as I used to do during my long career as an experimentalist.As I was not very good as handyman, I had to find a new activity. I started to work on  stained glass projects 3 years ago (and I am still doing it once a week). As a Christmas gift, I got a one trimester class of clay modeling.

Here is my first experience…. Making “a head” is not as simple as I was thinking. There are “some rules” to follow such as the shape of the skull,  the relative positions of the ears, the noze, the eyes, the mouth… Our teacher pointed out all those rules and gave us an advice: when you “see” people on the street or on the TV, just “look” at them as if they were “models”!

At first, I had in mind to make a man head…here is the first step:

Trying to put in place the ears, shaping the eyebrows, the chin…

Then, one day, our teacher asked me: do you really want to make a man head? I answered that I had rather choose a woman head (you know, I am now “half-woman” after being grafted with stem cells coming from a young lady ;-)!). I had to make several changes : smaller noze and chin, smooth cheekbones and eyebrows, shape of the eyes…

Then I added hair….

Now an hair bun ;-)!

Et voilà! My head is almost finish….

Evolution in action :-)!

This woman head will be for me the statue of my anonymous donor :-)!

A big thank you to the doctors and nurses at the Saint Antoine Hospital, in particular my kind graft doctor, my wonderful family, and my friends: I love you all!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_GRhikRAfw

Yesterday, I visited the Tenon hospital dermatology department to have a carcinoma removed via surgery. This one, located on the left temple, had been treated by various techniques but each time had made “a come back”!

The surgeon removed a piece of myself (5 cents coin (euros), a dime coin ($ US)) under local anesthesia.He then sewed me up, the most painful part of the act… In two weeks, I will need to meet a nurse to have the stitches removed…

Here is the result:

I discussed with the surgeon on the oportunity to have some wrinkles removed during the process to look younger…just joking!  He told me that I looked young enough, and that I was “a miracle” after what I had been through…

My dream was that I could become a new Clooney…

Before/After

Too bad I did not succeed to convince the surgeon!

Next month, I will visit again the Tenon hospital to have another carcinoma removed, this time via dynamic phototherapy…

To finish on a sunny note, here are more photos of our trip to Gran Canaria: enjoy!

Take care and enjoy life!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

With love

As you might know, at this time of the year the Paris area has usually a pretty bad weather: rain, grey skies, even snow… That is too much for old people like us! We need sun! So, we headed south to an island, spanish territory, located near the Africa cost, called Gran Canaria. It is one of the many islands in The Canarias.

During this week, we enjoyed temperatures in the twenties, sunny weather and the like! On this volcanic island, the panoramas are wonderful, and depending the positions on the island, north or south, very different lanscapes are on display: dunes, volcano rims, humid valley, beaches… Of course the vegetation is changing a lot. We saw for the first time hills covered with almonds in bloom. So beautiful! and a lot of orange trees and lemon trees.

Of course, we visited several churches to fulfil my quest of Saint Antoine statues :-)! We found 3!

To finish on “a medical information”: on the first day of our trip, I noticed “a small pool of blood” under the skin on the right forearm.It was followed later in the week by a similar thing on the left hand. It was not the first time I had noticed similar blood spots on the arms and hands, but this time it was much larger. I was not really afraid as I had done a blood analysis a few weeks ago which showed that I had a large number of platelets. However, as I am curious and want to understand “everything”, I asked my kind graft doctor what it could be. She told me that it was common in people who had an hematopoietic stem cells transplant. She told me that it was related to some kind of “capillary fragility”. She has always the right words to reassure me!

With love!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld14tnXCwS8

Last monday I had the last shot of the vaccine against chicken pox. It was the last step toward “a full protection” against various diseases. I am now 31 months after the graft, and my vaccines record is more or less similar to the one for a young child! I am a young chimera in an old-looking body!

Next monday, I will go back to my favorite place in Paris, the Saint Antoine hospital! It will the time for a full blood analysis. I will prepare myself well, so that I will not faint ah ah!

Then, on tuesday, I will meet my favorite doctor, my graft doctor. It will be the first time since she told me, four months ago, that the time had come for me to stop taking ciclosporine…

Beside “the recurrent fatigue”, I am feeling OK. But it seems that there are not clear explanations regarding from where this fatigue is coming (see https://www.anthonynolan.org/sites/default/files/Managing_Fatigue_After_A_Transplant_Anthony_Nolan.pdf).

I have been thinking hard about this problem, and I came with an “explanation”: many patients after having stem cell transplant have GVH, which is the sign of “a fight” between the graft and the old tissues via the immune system. So,maybe, the old body is spending a lot of energy to controle the attacks by the new immune system. hence “the fatigue”! Not clear I know ;-)!

Today, I started a new “artistic” activity: clay modelling. The first thing I am doing is modelling an head… I will show soon the first steps…

Take care and enjoy life!

With love…

Last thursday, I had an appointment with the dermatologist in the Tenon hospital. It was for a followup of the previous visits I paid there during the last summer.

I had two “problems”: one on the left temple, one on the back of the head. The first carcinoma had aalready been treated by dynamic phototherapy, then with “a cream”, and at last with liquid nitrogen… But during the last visit, the dermatologist told me that I might need some surgery to remove it (I think he was “sure” but did not want to push my spirit down!). The second one, a small one, was treated with ” a cream” during the summer, but I could feel that it did not disappear.

The dermatologist took “a sample” of cells from the carcinoma at the back of the head to identify what kind of cell it is; then she will propose a treatment, phototherapy or surgery…

For “the big one”, surgery was  the way to go… So in mid-february I will pay again a visit to the Tenon hospital to have it removed, I hope for good! The dermatologist explained that a small piece of skin will be removed around the carcinoma (around 0.5cm), so it will be like a small lifting :-)! A few years ago, I had another carcinoma removed by surgery. It was right in the middle of the forehead, so during the “lifting” I had some “wrinkles” removed. I asked for  a change of the face from “me” to Robert Redford (young) but the result was very disappointing… This time I will ask to be like Georges Clooney…

In addition, I had some strange feelings about the mouth (and some red “plates”on another part of my body). I was afraid that maybe the GVHc was making a come back. But the dermatologist said no: breathing better, but not 100% sure… I will disccuss with my kind graft doctor during the next appointment…..

In Tenon hospital, there is a small chapel with a statue of my very good friend Saint Antoine. I wen to visit him , put a candle near him to thank him for all the good he did to me, and took a photo!

Another strange thing: in the garden, inside the hospital, we discovered a tree in bloom: january 3rd! Global warming?

Next week, I will have my last vaccine. After I will be protected, as a baby, an old baby!

At the end of January, I will meet my kind graft doctor for a regular visit, just to check if everything is OK. But on the previous day, I will have a full blood analysis…. looking for good results!

I wish everybody an Happy New Year!

With love!

Photos of the carcinoma taken with my smartphone (the one of the doctor did not work well)…. grey hair!