Long Way From Home
Field Notes From A Stem Cell Transplant
Category: Field Notes
“Field Notes” is a collection of my “Field Notes” posts. These posts are more structured and dive into what my day to day looks like during the transplant/recovery process.
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Welcome back. It’s hard to believe this is already the tenth “field note” that I’ll be sharing here. Due to the slightly longer gap between this update and the last, there’s a decent amount to catch up on. This will be a beefier post. Most, if not all of it, is good news. There will…
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Day +100 is one of the major milestones in the transplant process, and I’m very happy to say I’ve finally reached it. This milestone comes with the loosening of some restrictions, which is great, but also with the added anxiety of more testing, tapering key medications, and everything else that comes next. I’ve made a…
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If I had to summarize briefly how this chunk of time has been, I’d say that it has been slightly frustrating in some areas, and encouraging in others. At the end of the day, I still think this period brought more progress than setbacks though, and that’s really all I can ask for. Anyways, let’s…
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Just like that, I’ve reached day +50. Medically, there isn’t much significance to this milestone, but mentally it feels really good. Most of the heavier post-transplant restrictions, barring any major setbacks, should start to lift around day +100, so being halfway there already is encouraging. Anyway, it’s been about two to three weeks since my…
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Welcome back! After some thought, I’ve decided this will be the last of the “weekly update” style field notes. The updates aren’t ending, but now that I’m through the initial 30 days, I want to shift to a more sustainable model. Going forward, I’ll be posting updates around key milestones like Day +50, Day +75,…
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Field note #5. Alternative title: “life out of a hotel room.” Not quite as glamorous as it sounds, but we’re right down the road from the hospital and will be here until a spot opens up at the Hope Lodge. Jokes aside, it was a good week, full of early recovery milestones and encouraging news…
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I’m very excited to share this one. Discharge came as a surprise, much earlier than the timeline I was given, and I ended up being wheeled out of the hospital on day +17. It was a whirlwind of a day in the best way, though the week leading up to it had its fair share…
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Welcome back. I took some time to focus on just getting through the low point the last week or two. The back half of my hospital stay was about as rough as expected, so I’ll be playing catch-up with the next post or two. I am doing much better now, and I did manage to…
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We’re back with a recap of my first full week here. There were plenty of things I’m proud of, and a few moments I’m less proud of, but overall I’m happy with the progress that was made this week. Let’s jump in. Disclaimer: Every stem cell transplant experience is different. This is mine. Monday, August…
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Today marks the start of the “Field Notes” series. Essentially, my attempt to document what this process actually looks like from the inside. I’ll admit, I may have overestimated my ability to keep a perfectly consistent posting schedule. I had meant to post this earlier this week around day -2 or -1, but as I…
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