[Richard Mousigian]

I had a bone marrow transplant from my brother on June 1st. He was a perfect hla match. I gotta tell you that I was not prepared for the pain on mucositis and nothing, not even morphine drip and pump took care of the pain. Once I engrafted though I started healing pretty quickly. I’m currently about a third of the way through my 100 days of solitude and staying with my sister who hooks me up to a magnesium IV for about 5 hours a day. I’m hoping to move over to oral mag and taper off the IV. Dr. wants me to stay on it for time being to mitigate the bad effects tacrolimus has on kidneys but I’m hopeful. I haven’t experienced GVHD yet and I probably just jinxed myself but this has been fairly uneventful since I left hospital with my main complaint being fatigue and tiredness.

[Richard Mousigian]

Hi Susie, Second round side effects were a bit different. No nausea, but an upset stomach. fatigue, foggy head. I just started round three today and I’ve been feeling pretty good for the last five days or so. My Platelets, which were at 14 are up to 110 before the session today. That’s more than double what they’ve been for the last three years. My WBC and HGB levels are still no good–1.1 and 9.1 respectively. Ironically, I started this process because of the platelet levels. The other ones were good before chemo. I hope to see them come up.
A friend of mine gave me some magic cookies for the ill effects of chemo but I haven’t used them for a month.
Hoping for a stem cell transplant next month. Waiting on ok from cardiologist. One of my sibs is a 10/10 match!

Hope your dad does better with successive rounds. If he’s feeling really rough with this round perhaps the Dr. can prescribe Marinol if you can’t get cookies. It knocked me over but I got my appetite back. Just don’t care for fuzzy brain.

[Richard Mousigian]

See if he can be prescribed dronabinol. It’s like pot in a pill…or marijuana edibles. He’ll get a buzz but it helps with nausea and appetite.

[Richard Mousigian]

I found out that my father’s brother had MDS about eight years ago but his family was pretty hush-hush about it. Don’t see anything in common except for a lot of Armenian food. Doc suggested that there may be a genetic predisposition for it. My sister has had anemia and low platelet as well although biopsy showed no MDS. Her condition improved.

[Richard Mousigian]

Have a pleasant journey Richard.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 2 months ago by Richard Mousigian.

[Richard Mousigian]

I’ve had a real protein craving the last couple of weeks since I started chemo. When I eat it’s usually eggs, cheese, nuts…at least I’m craving the right thing.

[Richard Mousigian]

Had a platelet transfusion yesterday. All the levels dropped. Mainly dog-tired for middle of day and trouble sleeping at night. I hope that the coming rounds aren’t the same.

[Richard Mousigian]

I finish my first round tomorrow. Feeling a little funky–loss of appetite, tired, gassy, and I have to pee a lot but I don’t know if it’s the Dacogen or shock of finding out I have MDS.

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