Rash 🥴

My body rash has gotten worse esp. on my arms and legs with increased itchiness. And my eyelids are swollen heavy making me look and feel like I’ve been beat up. 🥊 Makes sense since my body has been fighting as Bo’s stem cells engraft. My doc says these symptoms are not a bad thing from a cancer perspective. If so, this rash is something I’ll do my best to live with. Thankfully, there are some meds to help with the itchiness!! 😬. 

It appears as though these symptoms point to a common condition after transplant called acute graft vs. host disease (GVHD) in which my new donor stem cells are seeing my body’s healthy cells as foreign, and thus attack and damage them. Some GVHD is a good thing as the donor cells attack any surviving cancer cells as well. So it’s a blessing and a curse. Please keep in prayer for protection as the 3 ways that acute GVHD usually presents is through skin rash, GI issues, and liver dysfunction. Thankfully, I’m not currently experiencing the latter two, just the rash at this time.

My energy level is steadily improving everyday. I’ve been able to take some short strolls outside while the weather is still nice. I do need to particularly protect my skin though from the sun as some of my meds make me more sensitive to UV exposure especially with my rash and bald head. 👨‍🦲 We recently visited one of our favorite state parks to enjoy some fresh air, picnicking, and fishing! 🎣

To help me with my exercise, some friends generously pitched in to get me a stationary bike. This will be nice esp. when the winter weather arrives and as I can’t go to my local YMCA for a while. Here’s a pic of my good friend Billy joyfully putting together the bike for me... a labor of love. 😘

Words cannot express our immense gratitude to our dear friends including many of you who’ve loved on me and my family in such tangible ways to help me on this road to healing and recovery. God’s hands and feet. We’re so humbled and thankful. 😌