Day 126, Saturday, June 1st, 2013

I was not entirely forthcoming regarding my personal status in the last post, as I wanted to discuss vaccination in minor detail. When I said that nothing untoward was happening in my body, what I really meant was that nothing seriously untoward was happening in my body. My skeleton is not trying to leap out of my body through the mouth (it's a terrible disease, called 'bonus eruptus'), I'm not growing any new appendages or superfluous internal organs (having three livers would essentially allow you to drink mercury at parties [note: NO IT WOULD NOT] ...okay, but it would allow you to consume truly staggering amounts of alcohol [note: THAT'S CLOSER TO A TRUE THING]).

In the realm of actual, likely medical problems, there has been no sign of organ failure, no bone problems, nothing properly worrisome. No superpowers, either, which, if I'm honest, a small part of me was holding out for. Sigh.

No, what I do appear to have is the beginning of some GVHD. It appears to be relatively mild, thus far, and so the only treatment response from my team has been to increase my tacrolimus dose. Tacrolimus is an immune suppressant, and hopefully, should shut this down before it gets anywhere approaching any sort of danger. What it means for me is that I am a little bit itchy, my intestines feel oddly warm, and I am definitely fatigued by the time the sun slips past the horizon. In this context, "horizon" is equal to "tall buildings that obscure distant viewing." Though, if you're in the right spot and you can see the sun setting against the mountains, it's awful purty, boy I tell you what.

The non-treatment response from my team (which echoed my own understanding of such things) was that this was a good thing, a promising development. Getting some GVHD means that Dad's donated cells, Shiny's Submitted Sparkles, have engrafted (twinkled) and are now producing functional immune cells. This is good. It also means that the likelihood of a relapse in three, five, ten or twenty years, has reduced itself by a large degree, and I am quite prepared to accept that.

In summation, then: I am slightly less comfortable than I was a week ago, and as a result, I am taking a few more pills. I am exercising a little bit less, and sleeping a good deal more.

"I think that people who get hay fever are really just bigots against plant-sex equality." - me.