Day 68

Just as I anticipated, Dr. Khouri took me off Tacrolimus, the anti rejection drug, on Monday. The lymph nodes are still detectable by feel in the neck and under arms. Dr. Khouri is "taking the leash off" the new system so that it can attack the CLL disease.

This is all part of the balancing act that apparently goes on during the last half of the 100 day post transplant period. The trick is to arrest the disease while the patient is here in Houston where they can tinker with the meds under close observation.

A good thing about being off Tacrolimus is that I now don't have to take as much magnesium, which upsets the stomach. Since I was on just magnesium sulfate and and one anti-viral medication via IV, they have discontinued the daily IV's. I may have to get some more Rituxin (monoclonal antibody which attacks CLL cells) to help fight the disease, but that won't be a daily event. So my daily schedule just got a little freer.

So for the next two weeks we are watching out for GvHD and getting a little Rituxin as we coast (knock on wood) into a Thanksgiving break.