Preterit

I had clinic yesterday and they gave me some very good news. I am currently considered CMV Free!

Hopefully I am all done with the nasty Cytomegalovirus but they will continue to check me for it in the coming weeks as the virus can return when the super dosage of drugs that I am currently on is adjusted back to more of a "maintenance" level.

Dr. Waybill told me yesterday that she believes it's possible that I have had CMV since the transplant but it is often difficult to get a positive test result and so it went undetected for a good 6+ months. They all said how much better I look relative to past months (they really don't tell you when you look like hell) and almost all of my blood levels are much better. My white blood count is back to normal, and my red blood count is also back in the normal range for the first time in ohhhhh.....seven or twelve years. Joy!

As I've mentioned, other than a few persistent issues that I'm dealing with, I've felt better lately than I have for quite some time.

I wasn't officially attended to by Dr. Yang yesterday but before I left, I asked one of the nurses if he was in and she asked if I needed to see him. I told her I didn't "need" to, but that he would be disappointed if I didn't say hello. She summoned him and when he came down the hall to see me - he had the biggest smile I've ever seen him wear. We talked at length about my progress and he told me how they have discussed my case at meetings both at Harrisburg and in Philadelphia concerning the CMV, sharing details, implications,and results. We had a very nice conversation and I think that perhaps the dynamics of our doctor / patient relationship have improved. 

It's kinda nutty but I had  posted, a year ago tomorrow, that I was having an up-tick in blood numbers and now things are light-years better. It seems June has been a good month for me.

I hope the summer is off to a good start for all of you as well!

Ten

Among the verses of Faust of Goethe, there are:

If nine is one

Ten is none

Here is all the mystery

Ten is the symbol of the matter in harmony - 4 + 6.

Ten represents the Creator and the creation, 3 + 7, the Trinity resting in the expressed universe.

For Pythagoras, 10 was the symbol of the universe and it also the whole of human knowledge.

The sum of 5 + 5, the number 10 represents the two opposite current directions of the conscience:
involution and evolution.

The number ten is regarded as the most perfect of numbers, because it contains the Unit that did it all and

the zero, symbol of the matter and the Chaos, of which all came out; it then includes in it's figure the created

and the non-created, the beginning and the end, the power and the force, the life and the nothing.

According to Agrippa, "ten is called the number of all or universal, and the complete number marking the full course of life." He also attributes to it a sense of totality, the achievement, the return to the unit after the development of the cycle of the first nine numbers.

For the Mayans, it represents the end of a cycle and the beginning of another. The ten was regarded as being the number of the life and the death.

In China, the cross represents the number 10 - as the totality of the numbers.

For Pearl Jam - Ten was a legendary first release.

For Christians, ten signifies Completion - The Holy Spirit descended on the apostles ten days after the Ascension of Jesus.

And 10 was also the Pythagorean symbol of completeness.

In Bob World.......while the Ten month mark doesn't mean perfection or completeness, it does signify another month of progress. I had another CMV test the other day and hope to find out the results when I go to clinic later this week.
Although I still have some persisting abdominal issues, and I'm still working to get pre-op strength back, I've come a long way in just the last two months (since they finally discovered and began treatment of the CMV,)
and one heck of a long way since this night ten months ago.

In a nutshell - to quote The Beatles: "I've got to admit it's getting better....a little better all the time"

Thanks for checking in here.
Here's to ten more.