[traceyn11]

Hi Paul,
The colostomy is temporary at least until sometime after the transplant. My colon problems have caused me to be in and out of the hospital since I had my only 2 rounds of Vidaza in April & May. The drs. think the bad part of the colon has been there for a while, but was exacerbated by the chemo regimen. I have to call the transplant team today to find out what they want to do, but I think it will be several months before I can get it done. I will definitely ask them about a less ablative conditioning regime.

My bone marrow is okay I guess. The last BMT I had in Sept showed the blasts down to 10% from 14%, but my counts are all still low and they are worried about my weight since I just keep losing. At least I am off most of the antibiotics for now. The fungal infection is improving so that should be cleared up by the time I am healed from the surgery. Thanks for your continued support. It's hard for other people to understand everything I am going through.