The story in photos, including recovery.
Posts Tagged 'recovery'
Story in photos
Published November 16, 2009 History , Treatment 6 CommentsTags: bone marrow transplant, chemo, recovery
Day 100!
Published May 12, 2009 Transplant , Treatment 10 CommentsTags: bone marrow transplant, recovery, thanks
Hello Everyone!
Geraldine, Viviane, and Martine on Mother’s Day
I know its been a long time since I have blogged. My apologies. Things are going well for me. I get stronger and stronger everyday. I reached a milestone on Mother’s Day. That day was Day 100 (100 days from day zero of my second transplant). It was truly a day of celebration! Viviane and I got dressed up in our “princess dresses” and enjoyed a nice brunch with my family.
I am still going to MCV every two weeks to get my blood counts checked and I recently had a CT scan which I will know the results on Thursday. My blood counts are still all over the place. It will be awhile before everything returns to an altered state of normal. I keep hearing “be patient with your body” from the doctors. Did they not know that I have the patience of a saint? 🙂 Well, maybe not, but I am eager to start a new chapter in my life.
May 18th is a special day to me (for personal reasons) and this year, it is the day that I will be starting school. I have learned a great deal through my journey and something that I realized, is that I have a passion and a need to connect with people. So many individuals have reached out and shown me love which has fueled my passion for living. All of the support, hospital visits, text messages, emails, phone calls, all the work the people did to restore this website, cards sent to my house, flowers, care packages, and everything else is nothing short of amazing. I am in awe of this outpouring of love and will be forever grateful for it. Seeing how so many people have touched my life, that has inspired me to go back to school and pursue a Master’s degree in Nursing. I would really like to work with children & Oncology because that holds a special place in my heart.
Meeting Cheyenne and being on that transplant floor, I saw and heard many children that were also going through the transplant process. I know that life is not fair, but knowing that children have to endure and fight this disease is tragic. It is for that very reason that I am going back to school and furthering my education. Children deserve more, and we owe it to them to make the world a better place.
The road ahead won’t be easy, but I am eager to begin my renaissance.
I love you all,
Geraldine
Hello and Bonjour!
I hope everyone is enjoying their holidays with their loved ones. I am still recovering in Richmond. This recovery process is slow and sometimes very frustrating, but I am so thankful to have Vivi with me. The time that I spent in the hospital was the longest time that I have ever been away from her and that was heartbreaking. I really need to take this time to thank my parents who brought Vivi twice to the hospital to see me. If it had not been for them, I would not have seen her. She is the biggest part of my recovery and having been away from her has been the most difficult thing that I have ever done. I can’t begin to understand why someone would keep me from her, but there are cruel people out there. Okay, enough of that.
While I was in the hospital, I met a little girl named Cheyenne who is ten years old and had just completed her second bone marrow transplant. We used to walk up and down the halls together talking. Its one thing to go through this as an adult, but when you see young children suffering, it breaks your heart. Cheyenne has a type of cancer that is very hard to treat. Despite everything that was going on with her, she was an amazing little girl. Other normal people would come to our unit and Cheyenne one time asked me if they had Cancer like we did. I told her: “No, its just you and me kid.” I know that I am probably not doing a good job in putting this into words, but Cheyenne and I shared a bond. Bond by disease and baldness, but something beautiful. I am so glad that I met her and I really admire how brave she is. I will never forget her. She is a little angel who truly touched my heart.
Okay, now for some craziness. Many months ago, one of my best friends (Allie) asked me which celebrity I would like to come visit me in the hospital. Her suggestions of Angelina Jolie or Madonna where not what I had in mind. Without hesitation, I said Julian McMahon. For those of you who do not know who Julian McMahon is then you should be ashamed. One word for Julian, delicious. He is an actor on my favorite tv show Nip/Tuck. I immediately thought of him when Allie asked me the questions because in my mind, seeing him would give me something to live for and possible jump start my system. 🙂 Well, Allie got together with my other very close friend from high school, Libby and on Sunday night. I received a phone call from Julian. At first, I was totally not buying that Julian McMahon was calling, but the more we spoke, the more I realized that this was the real deal. He was very pleasant and I got the opportunity to speak with his daughter who is precious. Bottom line is that he wants to have babies with me. Okay, okay, let a girl dream. Truthfully, I never expected this to happen and I will forever remember this and cherish it. Libby and Allie, you ladies are amazing and no words can capture how truly touched I am. Thank you both. Well, Julian has my phone number so hopefully I will hear from him again…and then we can start making babies. 🙂
Thank you for all of your comments and texts. I will be in touch with people soon. I wish you all the very best holiday. Thank you for your continued support and I love you all.
Progress report after first transplant
Published December 20, 2008 Transplant 6 CommentsTags: bone marrow transplant, recovery
Geraldine and her mother, Martine, just before being released
Hello again everyone. I have been out of the hospital since Thursday afternoon, and am staying in a very nice corporate apartment in Richmond.
The view here is incredible, and the apartment is a very upscale, furnished condo with assigned parking and 24 hour security. Although I do miss seeing everyone back in Norfolk, I am grateful to be out of the hospital with such a nice place to recover. Its important that I stay only a few minutes away from VCU Medical Center in case anything happens during the next couple of weeks.
Happy Holidays!
On to even better news. My counts continue to climb and I continue to make progress with healing and re-growing my bone marrow at a fast pace. The hospital staff has been very pleased and everyone is saying how far ahead I am in the recovery process. I still feel like it is going too slow sometimes, but then I get reminded how far ahead of schedule I am.
I feel very lucky in all aspects. I get to spend the holidays with my daughter and my parents. I have wonderful friends who have shown me huge amounts of support and love.
Thank you all, and I hope you all have happy holidays.
Hello all. I am still pretty weak but I wanted you all to know that I my white cells are on their way back up. This is good news. I am sorry that I haven’t answered many calls or texts as I am sleeping a lot, but I may be getting out of the hospital this Friday and moving to the apartment in Richmond. I’ll let you know more when I can. Thank you all for being so supportive.
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