Author:veenakutty

After 2 months of being in Cleveland, I missed home! It’s good to be back and drive down our beloved 7 mile road. Hehe I even got some coffee from Tim Horton’s!  But unfortunately, we have to crash at my parents’ place since there is construction going on at our house. So we’re home…but not …
Continue reading Home sweet home…kinda

So when I came back from the hospital, I couldn’t do anything! If I ended up on the floor, I couldn’t get up without someone literally pulling me up. The card Danielle sent me pretty much sums it up: At this point, my husband decided he’d become Johnny Lawrence from Cobra 🐍 Kai!  For those …
Continue reading Cobra Kai Training

After a long day, I’m sure everyone at some point wished they were a baby! You can crawl into bed and nap or eat, it’s a nice life! 😃WRONG!! I can tell you first hand that being a baby 👶 is HARD! So all the chemotherapy killed everything and now I’m starting all over again. …
Continue reading Being a baby is NO FUN!

So after 3 weeks I finally got out of the hospital. I still have to stay in Cleveland for 1 month, but at least it’s not the hospital! When I got home(temporary home), my husband and daughter had a huge balloon surprise for me! Hehe I felt like the winner of a game show! But …
Continue reading I left the hospital, but it hasn’t left me!

So the stem cell transplant was completed Feb 1. Pretty anticlimactic, if you ask me. They premedicate you with Benadryl and Ativan (i guess people get nervous). The whole thing takes about 10 minutes. And WOoHOo you have new cells🥳🎉 Now after transplant is when the adventure begins!! Mine began day 2 with a wonderful …
Continue reading The Problematic Patient (AKA bed alarm bandit)

And now the fun begins! On Jan 25 I was admitted to the Cleveland Clinic to have the BEAM chemotherapy regimen to get rid of my immune cells and then to have my stem cell transplant! Day 1– I was excited! Today I received carmustine. It wasn’t bad. However, I did find it interesting how …
Continue reading BEAM therapy fun!

So when you’re going through a transplant, it is definitely causing craziness in your life, but you may fail to think about everyone around you 🤔What are they going through? It can’t be easy seeing someone you love suffer… Hehe in my opinion, it’s definitely harder to be the caretaker. As the one going through …
Continue reading Making things normal

So day 14 after my chemotherapy(cytoxan/cyclophosphamide) I started losing hair! I thought maybe my hair wouldn’t fall out, but that would be too good to be true 😋My scalp started being itchy and tender, and then my hair started falling out in clumps! My husband, daughter and I decided to make a game of it! …
Continue reading Hair Fairy

So  this week was the final exam. We would see if all the work I put in the past 2 weeks (chemotherapy and GCSF injections) would culminate in a successful harvesting of stem cells. To pass the test I had to collect 5 million stem cells. So I was connected to an apharesis machine! And the …
Continue reading The Final Exam-First Part

So I thought everything was good, and then day 5 post chemo hit and everything started going crazy  😜  1. Fatigue– You think MS causes fatigue, haha well so does chemo! But don’t fight it, let your body rest and sleep whenever you can!  😴 And have someone act as your nurse! I turned my …
Continue reading Week 2 of Harvesting Stem Cells – The Effects of Chemo