Precautions in everyday things

Things that have become second nature now include careful selection of food that we eat, very frequent washing of hands, cleaning anything we do not trust with antibiotic wipes - e.g. handles on supermarket trolleys.

Rosalind and the family had a lovely few days holiday including going to the zoo near their hotel in Hampshire. We really think the short hair suits her.

Lambing has poised some new challenges this year for Barbara and me. With a low neutrophil count I have to be very careful with dust, straw, fluids from animals, animals with diseases, etc. This means a few things I just do not do at all if others are around. Otherwise I do them with protective clothing, and the rest I just get on with and strip wash and wash my clothes later (in that order). At the end of  the day if a ewe needs to be lambed at 3:00 a.m. and the weak lambing needs care and attention then I just get on with it.

I remember when I first met Prof Mufti and he said 'You know we do treat farmers as well!'  At this time of the year we are like a very busy maternity ward.

Oh and we started calving a few days ago.

And we had a School Party around a couple od days ago to show them all about 'where their food comes from' and help with lambing

We are both going through a period of being quite well

I am busy lambing on the farm, which is 7 x 24, so I do need the odd extra lie down

Ros is even planning a weekend away with her family, and can face meals in restaurants - which if you have read about the problems of eating after chemo or a transplant you will fully understand

We both have bone marrow tests at the start of May - so fingers crossed that Ros's marrow is more of her donors and that I have not progressed further

How you can help patients with MDS or Leukaemia

As you know from reading this blog, Richard and his daughter both have a rare disease called Myelodysplastic Syndrome MDS.Rosalind has had two bouts of chemo in hospital and an unrelated donor transplant of bone marrow, and is doing OK. Richard has that to come if he can get a donor.

The only cure for this blood disorder and often for leukaemia is to have a bone marrow transplant. To have a transplant you need:

• A donor of matching bone marrow, also called stem cells
• Matching blood for transfusions
• Matching platelets - a special type of blood cell which is critical for clotting blood
• A lot of care, drugs and luck

Can you and your friends and family help? In most cases you can by being a donor. 

Giving blood and platelets can normally be organised easily at a hospital near you - ask you GP.

The Anthony Nolan Trust can advise you on whether you can be a bone marrow (stem cell) donor and how to go about it. The Anthony Nolan trust can send you a small container, you 'spit' into it, and send it back - this can be used to see if you match someone to be a potential bone marrow donor - nothing could be easier. Giving the bone marrow is done these days by filtering your blood - so is not as intrusive as it used to be.

In the USE try the National Marrow Donor Program

Please click here to save a life. It may not be ours, but ...

The MDS UK Patient Support group is excellent. To help the UK MDS support group click here If you live in the USA and want the MDS Foundation there  click here
 
To give funds to the MDS charity without it costing you a penny while you are shopping online, click here, set up an account and nominate MDS UK Patient Forum as your charity of choice. How it works etc is shown on this web site.  Or you could support your own favorite Cancer charity through this facility

Rosalind has a top up

This week I took Rosalind up to Kings in London. After tests and review by a couple of consultants they decided to give Ros the long awaited 'bone marrow top up'. This is more stem cells from the original donor, which had been kept on ice.
At the duly appointed hour a huge liquid nitrogen container arrived in outpatients. Ros had two injections up her temporary line to guard against infections and rejections. Then the transplant was removed from the liquid nitrogen, warned up in a special bath and then this 'transfusion' was given her. What was amazing was that it was only 10 mls - it hardly went half way down the tube! The nurse had to put a lot of saline mixture in afterwards to force it in.

Yes that is all of it in the picture!!. We met a lady who had a had a transplant a few days before Ros, and she had happily had two 'top-ups'.

We soon finished and wandered around John Lewis for a while, buying birthday presents for Isabel.