Beethoven’s 9th-Ode to Joy is my all time favorite symphony! You won’t believe this but I actually have it cued in the CarPlay for our 5 hour road trip to Mayo-Rochester today! What a powerful piece music. It always makes me misty-eyed.
It’s my almost 3 year transplant anniversary and I’m being re-staged tomorrow. I can’t help but think back 3 years ago today, I still had one more week of AML chemo to face before my transplant at the end of June. Getting to remission was the goal~eye on the prize. There was no Plan B for me. I just knew it was going to work! And it did, but it was one helluva ride to get there with a lot of ‘better living through chemistry’.

Unfortunately, ‘feeling good’ isn’t one of the many side effects of chemo and the harsh drugs it takes to get us to remission. Hah, I’d love to see that on the side of one of the med bottles, “Will cause euphoria and extreme good feels!”😅
I can sense your doubt creeping in again, so please, I encourage you to stop worrying about whether you’ll achieve remission or thinking that it might not be possible. Let the meds work. They are strong for a reason because cancer is a relentless foe. So there will be some unpleasantness as the drugs help your immune system take out this invader. Our attitudes can greatly affect how we respond so it’s really important to just KNOW that this will work and that you’ll be able to get to the transplant phase!

I truly, truly, empathize with you that you’re not feeling well. It’s a matter of just plugging away one day at a time, sometimes 5 minutes at a time, keeping some degree of normalcy to your life, which you are doing. That’s encouraging to me to see that you’re working your way through this because honestly, it’s going to take a while before you’re feeling on top of the world again. But you will get through this! ☺️
3 years ago no one could have convinced me that I’d be feeling like I’m 20 and super woman. But here I am, super old woman, and it was all worth it.

Wishing you good news with your visit with the PA on Thursday. Will you let me know your progress?

@tml Like Lori responded to you, it all takes an emotional toll. I'm right there with you, having to work on focusing on daily things, and not focusing on the mm or treatment. I hope the numbers are working in your favor, but please don't get upset if you need another round. Remember you need to be your own advocate, so if they are not responding to you in a timely fashion with results and okay to get another round, call them and get on their case! You don't want to have a break of more than a week unless that is what the dr is ordering!

Last Thursday I had my appt. I am at a very low dose of Revlimid. Because there are other factors involved, we have to go slowly to drop my numbers. As my dr explained to me, we could add another med to speed remission, but the side effects would not be good. We would have to stop everything [including Revlimid] while my body recovers, then start up slowly again. We would lose anything gained if I were to simply stay on the low dose Revlimid only. And I am okay with that. I don't think I can get a SCT due to my kidney issue.

As @loribmt mentioned, I am anxious to hear what the PA has to say to you this week.
Ginger