The Christmas/New Year time is the right period to cook cakes…

So, I spent some time making various cookies, cakes,… Here are photos of my production:

Banana bread with walnuts and carrot cake with cranberries:

Quince paste

Almond shortbread (before and after cooking):

Sourdough bread:

Lemon shortbread:

Brioche:

Cherry clafoutis:

I will try new receipes in the future…

Enjoy life!

With love!

Today is the 3rd New Year Eve I have the chance to share with my family and friends since the graft I had on June 24th 2016! I think it is the right time to thank the fantastic team at Saint Antoine hospital and in particular my kind graft doctor, also my anonymous donor (without her I would not be around), my family who was and is there to support me in good and not so good days, without forgetting my friends…

I would like to share with you the recent addition to my big collection of Saint Antoine’s statues: they come from various churches in France and abroad. Thank you my family and my friends! And keep sending me your new discoveries!

In the first week of the new year, I will have my first apointment at Tenon hospital in dermatology: carcinomas are still presnt, so I might need some surgery to remove them. I will take the oportunity to ask for a “lifting” :-)!

Then I will have my last vaccine…

I hope you will have all a wonderful year 2019: may all your dreams become real!

Take care and enjoy life!

With love…

Two years ago, for Christmas, as a gift, I received a ticket good for 5 stained glass courses at http://www.irisations.com/Irisations-index-vitrail-Paris-en. Although I already had a training on stained glass a few years ago, I was a beginner. Under the guidance of Tatiana, I learned again the basics…

Made in Chartres a few years ago:

I was just 8 months after the graft, and I was hardly strong enough to cut the glass…After standing in front of “the bench” for 3 hours, I was exhausted…  crying when being alone in the car on my way back home. Then, slowly, I came back to life :-)!

Here is my first “masterpiece”: it took me hours to finish it, although it is not so well done!

It is now in Toronto: international recognition ah ah!

My second project came from a stained glass “window” I had noticed in a small church on an island in the golf du morbihan… I was overconfident! So many pieces… Well at the end, I made it, thanks again to Tatiana.

For the third project, I decided to try the classical stained glass, using lead (the first two projects were  “Tiffany” style). The idea came from the web….

For the last project, completed last friday, I went back to the “Tiffany style”, taking the idea again from internet…

With time, I am becoming “addicted” to stained glass :-)! Why? Maybe because it is a kind of substitute to the experiments I did for years in organic synthesis. Making new molecules is a kind of “creativity”, as it is to make stained glass (maybe I am pushing too fare the meaning of “creativity” ;-)!)

Anyway, last friday I started a new project….

Before closing this post, I would like to point out that if I can do projects like the ones I described above it is because I was lucky enough to meet the fantastic group of people at Saint Antoine hospital and in particular my kind graft doctor, of course my anonymous donor, and my wonderful family: even when fare way, you are all within me all the time!

With love…

Oh yes, yesterday I met the first tattooed Saint Antoine in the Eglise de Saint Germain des Prés in Paris:

As you all know, after the chemotherapy used “to wash out” all the bad hematopoietic stem cells , all the old good immune system I made 60 years to build was gone…

In early 2017, then at the end of 2018, I started a campaign of vaccines against stretococcus pneumoniae, diphteria, tetanos, whooping cough, hepatitis B, poliomyelitis,  haemophilus influenzoe,pneumococcal infection, measles, mumps, rubella. Of course I had also the flue vaccine!

I am almost at the end of the campaign…

Today, December 19th 2018, I had the first shot of the last vaccine: chicken pox. In a month, I will have the second shot, and I will be fully covered as a newborn!

However, when I had my small number of whites cells, long long time ago, I was never sick: no infections, a mystery for doctors! But I had my old good immune system working! Nowdays, it is not the same story: I had twice a cold, something I don’t remember I had for years before. For the last cold, which is not finish yet, I did not do anything against it: I am trying to build my own immune system by giving it something to fight against! From a biological stand point, I might be wrong, but who cares :-)!

Since this blog is made to share my experiences, I would like also to speak about something which is disturbing me: it is the fatigue I am experiencing whenever I am doing some activities: I feel tired… It was not like that in the “old good times” ;-)! On talking of this problem with my kind graft doctor, she said that it is a situation more than half of the people who had stem cells transplants are reporting. Nobody knows from where it comes. She also told me that she has no “magic bullet” available to help. It is OK, I still like her :-)!

Here is a paper I found related to this problem:

Click to access Managing_Fatigue_After_A_Transplant_Anthony_Nolan.pdf

It is very informative, but no cure offered of course…. but I don’t feel alone :-)!

I also made a blood analysis, since it was already 2 months I did one: according to my kind graft doctor everything looks OK, although there are “signs” of a viral infection…. the cold!

Anyway, it does prevent us to travel! Last week, we went to Britanny: Saint Malo, Cancale, Dol de Bretagne. here are some photos taken around those places…

We also visited the Mucha Exhibit at the Luxembourg museum… Photos!

And please, don’t forget to enjoy life!

With love.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCC11QJviPA

This fall, I will need to complete my protection by having the second round of vaccines I could not have last year because of my limited immune system.

Before leaving for China, I had  the first shot of the vaccine against measles + rubella + mumps. The second was scheduled in four weeks, but my family doctor told me that I had better have the flue shot before; so last monday I had it.

In 3 weeks, I will have the second shot for the vaccine M + R + M.

Yesterday, november 21st, I had the second shot for the M-R-M vaccin… In a month or so, I will have the first injection for the last vaccin: in two months, I will be protected in full as a new-born :-)!

During my last apointment with my kind graft doctor, she told me that I would need to have a blood analysis by the end of november (two months after the one I had in september). It is just to see if everything stays “normal”…

As I said before I don’t like too much the fall season: it is depressing…

On a brighter side, it is the 3rd fall  I am living since my second birth :-)!

I love you all!

A few photos taken this morning in the garden of Luxembourg, on my way to the lab at Curie….

Greetings from Nanjing-China!

This time no health-related reports! Just fun! Enjoying my new visit to Southeast University in Nanjing.

Here are some photos taken around the campus this morning. I will add more in the coming days…

If I can travel “freely” now, it is because of the outstanding job made by my wonderful graft doctor and the team in Saint Antoine hospital. I don’t forget my stem cells donor (she is within me all the time ;-)!), and my beautiful family and friends. I love you all!

On the breakfast table… The ones who visited China before will understand the meaning :-)!

Air pollution in nanjing this morning (october 25th)…

Primary school in Nanjing:

Smelling the chemicals when traveling along the corridor… Good memory of “the old good time”!

Today, October 26th, we are visiting Hangzhou, a place I already visited last spring. Here are a few photos I took in May and photos taken during this visit…

Week-end in Hangzhou…

Xixi National Wetland Park…

Housing in Hangzhou

West lake and a pagoda:

Copper museum

Light show

October 29th: back in Nanjing…

Nanjing October 30th: in and around Southest University Campus

Nanjing or Paris? Eiffel tower and Les Invalides ;-)!

Chinese jasmine cookies…

On and around the campus this morning, November 1st 2018:

November 2nd, Last chinese breakfast…

Around the campus…

November 2nd: last night in Nanjing, in an hotel near the campus…

November 3rd: In Beining, on the way home, waiting for the boarding…

This week has been “an hospital visits” week!

First, I went to see an ophthalmologist as I was thinking that I might need to have surgery to correct a cataract. I was wrong! The doctor told me that it was not yet the time. I just needed to adjust my corrective lenses. Yes! So happy! I have to say that I am really afraid to have somebody touching my eyes. I know it is stupid: I was not afraid by having the stem cells transplant! Older but not more cleaver ;-)!

Then, I had a follow up visit with my dermatologist at Tenon hospital. I had a carcinoma, which has been treated by photodynamic therapy, but which had made a come back after a few months. I had it treated a second time by a cream (Aldara) for 6 weeks, and the doctor wanted to have a look on it. Well, it worked in part… The next step to remove it should be by surgery but my dermatologist wanted to try something less damaging for my face ;-)! So, he used a spray of liquid nitrogen “to burn it”. Results in a few months from now!

Then we discussed a small bump I had on the back of the head…and yes it is another carcinoma, although it is just a small one! This one will be treated by the same cream I used before… Reuslts in a few months!

But, maybe, there is a good news, as pointed out by my doctor: I don’t have anymore photopheresis, I stopped to take ciclosporine, both limited my ability to fight those small “cancers”. Now my immune system will be stronger so we might expect that no more carcinomas will show up…

I received a copy of the detailed record sent by my kind graft doctor to my family doctor regarding my last visit to her. She wrote that I am in cytological and molecular remission: so it is official! Thanks to the group of doctors and nurses at Saint Antoine (in particular my graft doctor), the photopheresis nurses, my donor, my family, my friends: it is a big success!

Today, I have an apointment with my family doctor: first injection of the vaccin against measles + rubella + mumps! Yes I am like a baby:-)!

We are now entering the season I never liked: fall. To help, I would suggest this beautiful song:

Take care and enjoy life!

I love you all!

Today, on september 25 2018, I had an apointment with my kind graft doctor. She started by showing me the results regarding the blood analysis I did yesterday: all the numbers were “perfect”! (in fact, it is not that much surprising because my nick name has been for years Mr Perfect!).

Then she started to explain me that it was not any more necessary to have ciclosporine (Néoral in french), as everything was just fine: no more GvHc! Yes! It was the news I have been looking for for months now! So happy!

She also made the point that if I had some doubts on having GvH in the mouth again, I should not hesitate to call her or the day hospital to check. It is very important to know that I will have “for ever” this safety net available!

Well, now, I am left with an antiviral to take twice a day. Not important!

Soon, I will need to have the last vaccins I did not have before, when my immune system was not strong enough. I will do that next month.

I was so happy that I asked my wonderful graft doctor the permission to hug her:yes!

If I am in remission, with little drugs to take and an OK fitness, it is because of the fantastic team at the Saint Antoine Hospital, with a little plus to my graft doctor, to my anonymous donor, to my wonderful family and my friends! They are all very special for me! I love them all :-)!

In the near futur, I will have some new challenges to handle: cataract surgery, carcinoma surgery… But today I am really really happy!

With love!

Swinging in the sun :-)!

Dear friends, I have been silent for some time, as I was visiting family in Toronto! We took the oportunity to also visit a new place in Canada: the canadian rockies!

We enjoyed our time both in Toronto and  Alberta.

In Toronto, we visited “graphic alley”. Below are some photos of the street art!

We headed west to Calgary, en route to Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper… Four hours fly, two hours time change: speaking of Canada as a big country!

We did some hikes, sometimes up in the mountains: a few kilometers long, climbing up and down. We walked on a glacier! Everything went fine! We had good weather, sunny and warm, but also not so good weather, rain and snow, yes snow :-)!

Canadian rockies are beautiful: wonderful lakes with stuning colors; a lot of glaciers, high mountains…. This part of Canada is famous for wild life… we did not see much, as there were too many people! Just a coyote crossing the road, the tail of a bear, and a caribou from fare away.

This week, I will have another round of apointments at Saint Antoine hospital: on monday blood analysis, on tuesday visiting my kind graft doctor. I am looking forward to this visit…

In my next blog I will let you know what news I got!

Before, I would like to share with you some of the photos I took during our trip…

And please, don’t forget to enjoy life!

I love you.

This week, I received a copy of the report my kind graft doctor sent to my family doctor. This report gives the last informations regarding the “two years” visit” I had with her a few weeks ago .

As you can see in the document below, it is stated that I am now in “cytological and molecular remission” (rémission cytologique et moléculaire in french). My understanding is that there are no trace of my defective stem cells in the bone marrow: everything belongs to my donor’s hematopoietic stem cells!

So, I am “half man” “half woman”: perfect chimera!

My next visit with my graft doctor will be at the end of september. Maybe at this time, she will give me the news I have been expecting for months now: no more ciclosporine! If she says so, maybe I will hug her… it will be difficult to resist!

At the end of this year, I will have more vaccins, the ones I could not have before. At this time, I will be like a baby, fully protected again :-)! But an old baby ah ah!

Next week, we will head to Toronto to visit our daughter and son in law. Looking forward for meeting them again !

Thank you to the team at St Antoine (my fantastic graft doctor and the other doctors, the nurses, the photopheresis nurses), to my graft donor and my big family. I love you all!

And don’t forget to take care and enjoy life !