Round em up; move em out - Engraftment

If you all remember when we started all of this, we were aiming at an outcome of something called "Engraftment". This means at Zero +9-11 days, after a shot of Neupogen (to stimulate white cell movement), there is an expectation that you white cell count will recover from zero to at least a respectable 500 or more neutrophils in a cubic millimeter of blood. For the more technical in the audience...

Neutrophil — A type of white blood cell
ANC — Absolute neutrophil count
Neutrophil engraftment — ANC count of 500 or more for 3 days in a row
Platelet engraftment — Platelet count of 20,000 - 50,000 (without platelet transfusion)

On Wed evening my system went into grafting mode...a little ahead of schedule....but this time I decided to be an A+ student. My whites were 0.5, my Neutrophils were 0.35, and everything was on the way up.....so we really couldn't call it grafting until we got the response the next day and exponentially for a few days....and if we could stay away from infection.....

Believe it or not by Thursday afternoon, I was released from the hospital and sent "cautiously" home-with a "boost" of platelets. I am on the way to recovery. Technically I have engraftment of the whites, but technically not the platelets yet.....but I'm sure Monday will bring this measurement.

Did the stem cells have a GPS.......yes and God has allowed me a new life.

There is no moral to this story. My body and mind will recover at a pace over the next 6 months to a year...and yes I'm going to push it because thats me and thats what I do.

Thanks for following my story, for all your prayers,chants, and motivating comments. Thanks for being there for me.....I will write as often as I can to keep you posted of my progress....I'm hoping to tell you most of it face to face.....

Love Y'all.....

Robert M. Cosenza