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 !

Greetings from Bures! After the very successful stem cells graft I had 2 years ago, I became “young again” :-)! (Thank you my kind graft doctor at Saint Antoine, my donor, my family, my friends!).

So I am planing for a new carriere, since I cannot do chemistry anymore: I would like to become a pastrycook! The kinds of sweet things I can do are very limited at this time, but I am thinking of taking class in pastry-making!

Below is samples of what I can produce now: carrots cake, banana bread, cherries batter pudding, sourdough bread, jams…

The problem is that if I make too many cakes and eat them, I will become diabetic, ah ah! So I need to give them away ;-)!

And to put an end to my carriere in Chemistry, I would like to share with you some photos of my former labs…

Before my former lab in Curie became unreachable (“Pavillon des sources” locked for good), I took some photos to keep memory of where I worked for around 20 years…

Here is a video of the lab:

Also, here are photos of the hood where I used to work during my visits to Dave’s lab in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Colorado-Boulder. Thank you Eva for “saving it” during the times I was back in Curie!

As my daughter used to tell me: chemistry is not everything in life :-)!

Take care and enjoy life!

With love…

Today, I would like to share with you my personal collection of Saint Antoine’s statues. It all began a little more than two years ago, when I started to visit frequently the Saint Antoine hospital. I started to take photos of the statues each time I met one, on visiting churches or cathedrales. When possible, and following a well established tradition in the family, I lighted a candle too!

With time, everybody in the family and also friends became aware of my passion for this guy ;-)! This way, I received many more photos of him, either from France but also from abroad!

Of course, I will continue my quest for more statues. At some point, I will have to go to visit Padova and Saint Antoine’s grave there! (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padoue).

But making jokes about Saint Antoine does not prevent me to remember that if I can make those jokes it is because of the wonderful people of the hematology department at Saint Antoine hospital: my kind personal graft doctor and the other doctors and nurses. I don’t forget the nurses/good friends of the photopheresis! Of course nothing would have been possible without my stem cells donor I will never know. And of my family and friends too! I love you all so much!

Take care and enjoy life!

Today, I went to the Saint Antoine hospital for my last photopheresis…

I started the treatment on June 2017, and had around 23 rounds of photopheresis.

It was mixed feelings. Of course, I was happy with the success of “the experiment” (GvH is gone, maybe with the help of ciclosporine), but a little sad, as I will not meet so often my nurses, who with time had become more and more my friends. This morning, when I started to talk with her, we could see tears in our eyes. I promised that whenever I will come to Saint Antoine for the regular apointments with my nice graft doctor, I will stop by to say hello.

But it is also a step forward to a full recovery, a “small step” but in the right direction!

The speedy recovery I am enjoying results from the outstanding quality of the team at Saint Antoine. (doctors, with a special thank to my graft doctor, doctors and nurses from the 4th floor, doctors and nurses from the day hospital, nurses from the photopheresis, all the other people I had the chance to meet like my “graft nurse”,…). I will never forget them. They saved my life, together with my graft donor, my wonderful family and my friends. I love you all!

However, it is not yet the end of the story! I am still on the boat, which picked me when I landed on the sea. A few months to go…

To be continued!

Trying to become real canadians….

Paris suburb starts to look more like the south…. oleander in our garden!

And now some music….

Today, I had my first apointment of the week to an hospital: dermatology at Tenon hospital. It was a “follow up” exam, to check if everything was Ok regarding the carcinoma which was treated by dynamic phototherapy a few months ago.My doctor was happy with the results!

On the other hand, I had for some days a “strange feeling” in the mouth, which remembered me of the GvH I had before. I was not sure the GvH was not making its come back… According to my doctor, not this time! Yes!

Now the not so good news (but not too bad either!): on looking at “the first carcinoma I had a while ago, and which has been treated by phototherapy, my doctor told me that this carcinoma was making a come back! This time we will try at first to treat it with a special cream. This is usually very efficient, but it can hurt: burning, scratching,… It will last 6 weeks. Yes, a new experiment! So happy!

Speaking about another subject: last week, I completed my 3rd stain glass project. Here are some photos related to this:

I am looking forward for a new project!

Of course, my new “good health” is thanks to the fantastic team at the Saint Antoine hospital, and in particular my kind graft doctor, my anonymous donor, my family and my friends, and to the doctors at the Tenon department of dermatology.

It is not yet the end of the adventure… Stay tuned :-)!

Take care and enjoy life!

I really love you all :-)!

And for the ones who are not yet fed up of MDS, please have a look at:

http://www.youandmds.com/en-mds/home

The last time I met with my kind graft doctor, she concluded the apointment by saying that my immune system was now strong enough and that I did not need antibiotics! So happy!

Ten days later, I started to cough and with the passing days, I started to have some fever… I went to visit my family doctor: rhinopharyngitis.

As she was afraid that I might end up with a lung infection, she gave me, yes, antibiotics!

I was so sorry. I hope I will not upset my graft doctor… Clearly, I am not Superman ah ah!

Anyway, it was time for us to go to Normandy- Cotentin for a few days of “vacations”…

Wonderful weather, nice guests both at the B and B, and the hotel, long walks along the sea, several churches and cathedrales searchs to find statues of my good friend St Antoine,… Here are some photos taken during the trip…

Take care and enjoy life!

I love you!

Two years ago, when I left room 426 after a month “in confinement”, I was skinny and bald. As my son in law pointed out, I looked like “Mister Clean” ;-)!

Two years later, I am haired and with my “love handles” back in place!

What a change!

Today, I would like to share with you “a letter” which was given to me a few days ago by Laura, from our lab. This letter was written centuries ago by Epicure, a greck philosopher. It is called “Lettre à Ménécée”. You can find it (in French) at:

Click to access Lettre-à-Ménécée.pdf

(http://www.epicurus.net/en/menoeceus.html)

I hope you will like it…. maybe you will become “un épicurien” as we say in French…

Today, I am kind of “sentimental”, so I would like to share with you this song by Jacques Brel:

Take care and enjoy life :-)!

I love you all!