Platelets good enough for a road trip

I am very happy to report that my platelets today, a full 17 days after my last IVIG, were a very healthy 216,000, down from 308,000 a week earlier.

This means that surely I needs the IVIG, or the fall would continue. But how low would it go? Who knows? I don't plan to find out.

But more importantly, it is pretty safe for me to travel to Israel and I should be safe for at least a few weeks from a platelet point of view. To add a margin of safety, I am getting a higher dose of IVIG to safeguard my journey.

The rest of the CBC was WNL though my HGB dropped a bit from 14.6 to 13.7. I won't worry about that unless it looks like it's the start of a trend.

The IVIG seems to be doing a better job post transplant and post splenectomy. My platelets have been much more responsive to the protein coating from the immunoglobulins since my scavenging spleen was removed more than a year before my transplant.

I will gingerly try to stretch out the infusions to 3 weeks when I return. I could live with that non remitting life style for a long long time. And I mean that literally.

We leave for Israel tomorrow afternoon. Patty and I are so excited. We are having Sabbath dinner with my donor and his 11 younger siblings.

I hope to see the details of my BMB before I take off and will share the news here.