Hi all, things are going really well for me at the moment, it's great! On Tuesday we went to the hospital to pick up and learn how to self-inject the GCSF, the drug that encourages stem cells out of my bone marrow. I was all like, 'yeah, I've done years of self-injection, I'm all good!' but the difference is, these syringes do not come with an auto-injector, which is what I used when I was injecting all of my MS drugs (there was one auto-injector that had a light that came on highlighting the target for the needle, and another that set a bell off when it was done. More interesting (geeky) MS-life facts!). So the lack of auto injector left me with my belly exposed (the injection site), staring at the syringe in my hand--couldn't do it. Enter the Singapore Superhero who is Peter! It's his most important job at the moment, twice a day, 8am and 8pm. He's so proficient at it, what a star 😍 Anyway, so the injections have been going well, and I'm ...
Overview and background of my reasons for going to Singapore to receive HSCT for my M.S. in 2017. Well. I'm feeling really awkward; it's not comfortable for me to write about myself so publicly. However, I wanted to write this blog so I can update people about what's going on with the treatment - both in the planning stages, and while I'm over there. So here goes: Basically out-of-the-blue in February, I decided to look into stem cell treatment (Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation ( HSCT )) for my multiple sclerosis. I'd heard about this a couple of years ago, but didn't seriously consider it - it seemed prohibitively expensive and just generally not 'proven' enough for me. HSCT involves (at a basic level) suppressing the immune system with chemotherapy, and transplanting the patient's own stem cells (extracted before the chemo) to assist with the immune system's re-boot. The idea, as a treatment for MS (and other auto-immune conditi...
We left on Sunday night; WLG - AKL - SNG (the most direct route possible). I flew Business Class, to avoid being around too many other people who might be harbouring colds or 'flus, and that was lovely. Although despite the fact that Air NZ Business has lie-flat beds, I only managed to get about an hour or two of sleep. I also didn't really wear my mask (which I was supposed to do) because I found it really stifling, and hard to breathe comfortably. I'll have to wear one on the way back, but hopefully I haven't picked up anything treatment-delaying with my failure to do so on the way over. Upon arrival at the airport, we flew through customs (seriously, it was so quick) and went to get a taxi to our apartment where a member of the property management staff met us. Getting a taxi wasn't the easiest though, because the drivers of regular cars wouldn't take us and all of our luggage (three months people, don't judge!); James (one of our house/cat-sitters) ...
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