Good news, and one less good

Roz is looking good and her clinic today was positive. She is having a chimerism test as normal to prove all is in correct balance ie close to 100% of all cells from donor. She only goes to clinic every three months these days.

I had my clinic on Wednesday. I look well, feel well and blood tests were good. However my last chimerism tests showed showed on one blood type that the % of donor had gone down from 69% to 61% which is less good than going the other way. This could be error levels, minor glitch or anything else. My consultant is not worried, and we agreed that i was OK enough to buy some new heifer cows!!

I will test in a few weeks. If the counts have gone down further they will probably ask my donor for more stem cells for one or more top-ups. This will be frozen until needed.

So overall, its looking good. We are starting to think about a family holiday in the summer.

Hair today

Over 4 months after my transplant my hair is coming back really well. With the warmer weather I can go out without a hat now.

We are opening our second self catering cottage again, as we feel we can cope again. We are also entering sheep to show at the Devon County Show, which is in May.

However I still get tired very quickly when doing physical work, so I do desk / website work to make up my day.

On Saturday we got a new puppy, Pippin, to replace my senior sheep dog who died recently 

Consultants very pleased with my progress

The top consultant spotted me and said "Great to see you Richard. How are you?".
I responded "Very well", to which she said "Correct answer" and wandered off with a big smile on her face.
The registrar checked me out and said I was doing very well. Results

• Neutrophils 3.8 which is excellent
• Haemoglobin 132 which has gone up to this very acceptable level from110 three weeks ago

So I stay on three weekly check-ups. Meanwhile she gave me some cream for dry skin and OK'd me to go to the dentist for a check up - which they do not normally allow for many more months

Birthday milestone

There was a time when I was not sure if I would live to today - my 68th birthday

I feel very well, and am doing more each day. On the farm I can now check stock, feed up the cattle, use the digger etc. But I still get tired after an hour or so

We re-opened one holiday cottage a few weeks ago, and now we have decided to open the other one after Easter

Clinic for me on Wednesday following three weeks without having to attend hospital

Rosalind is very well, and coming to help get the cottages ready for guests