Home at last

Howdy
I just thought I'd keep you all entertained with another update. My last post finished with me going home after my long and intense transplant. This post will continue from that point and hopefully get us back up to date with how things are now.
The car journey home was weird. I was excited about seeing friends and family I hadn't seen in a long time. It also felt weird seeing places I recognised and when I arrived back in Ashford some areas had changed a bit e.g. building sites were looking like buildings now. That was weird. It sounds really strange, but I also think it felt a little bit odd leaving the hospital; I had been in there under their care for a quarter of a year, so I suppose I felt in a bit of a comfort zone there after so long.
When I finally arrived back at my house I was greeted by my family, who had been waiting at my house for when I arrived. Being at home again took a little bit of getting used to, but it was AMAZING to finally be sitting at home with my family, with my loyal cat curled up next to me again.
I would be going to UCLH twice a week for blood tests and to see if any of my doses for the tablets I was (and still am) taking needed changing. I kept my PICC line in because the doctors said that I would probably need blood transfusions or platelets twice a week.
On my first clinic appointment my doctors were very pleased with my progress, I didn't need a transfusion as my blood counts were good. After a few appointments of my bloods staying good and not needing transfusions it was decided that my PICC line would be taken out, as it wasn't needed, and my appointments would only be once per week.
The PICC line removal was supposed to take 5 minutes, just give it a tug and it would come out (obviously, in a bit more of a controlled way). BUT, when do I ever just let things be simple? In total, it took about an hour and a half to get the line out of my arm!! Apparently my veins were contracting,which was basically holding onto the line, stopping it from sliding out of my arm. From then on, any blood tests would be done with needles.
Now I am only going once evey fortnight, as my blood counts have been so good that I havent needed any transfusions. I have got a bit of graft versus host disease, which means my new cells are recognising my body as foreign, but thats treatable. Also the doctors do like GVHD because it also fights Leukaemia. Good stuff. I also had a blood test to see what my blood DNA is like, and its results showed that my blood is identical to that of my American donor now. This means my blood type has probably changed too, WOOP!
There is a type of white blood cell called a Lymphocyte, and apparently my Lymphocyte count is amazing for somebody in my situation. My doctor told me that if I had had a standard bone-marrow transplant, it could take up to a year to get that sort of Lymphocyte count. This means that my immune recovery is going pretty well. Double WOOP!
Im not allowed to go to school or to busy places because my immune system isn't at full strength yet and won't be for a while yet. I did manage to go to school briefly to collect an award for perseverance, which was cool. I saw a few of my mates while I was there too, always a bonus.

That's all for now... I'll have more updates soon
Andrew
:)