---
title: "Going Home (Almost) - day 28"
tags:
  - the cancer
date: "2020-01-28T21:39:06Z"
featuredImage: "./IMG_1631.jpg"
visible: "true"
excerpt: "Update: A weekend pathologist made a mistake and what they thought were leukemia blasts were really just new white blood cells. We did another bone marrow biopsy a week later and they found no leuk..."
---
**Update:** A weekend pathologist made a mistake and what they thought were
leukemia blasts were really just new white blood cells. We did another bone
marrow biopsy a week later and they found no leukemia whatsoever. So good news.
We were actually able to go home a couple days after I wrote this.

---

We were so close to being able to go home this week! So close! But alas, it was
not to be. After the first round of chemo, we spent the rest of the month
waiting for my immune system counts to come back up to an almost normal level.
We were days away from being able to go home and live a couple of normal weeks
before the stem cell transplant (or a bit of consolidation chemo if needed).
However, on Sunday night we were informed that there were traces of leukemia
blasts found in my blood work. This was a pretty rough blow after thinking we
were about to go home. It means staying in the hospital another month and going
through another round of what they call salvage chemo. It will be a different
cocktail of drugs to hopefully wipe out leukemia that was resistant to the last
chemo regimen.

The good news is that because I'm so healthy right now (and feeling pretty
fucking awesome) they decided I could go out on leave for the day today. Even
though we have to come back so soon it was incredible to experience the outside
world after being here for exactly a month now and looking at another month
stuck in the same room. It was glorious to go home. We napped on our bed, which
is about 1000X more comfortable that the stupid hospital bed. Also, my wife has
been sleeping on a couch in the hospital for a month, so a real bed had to feel
like heaven for her. We got to spend the afternoon with our dog. I got to make
myself a latte. We went to a restaurant for lunch. It was a proper day.

Part of me on that first night after hearing I had leukemia thought I would
never walk out of this hospital. I now realize I had no fucking clue about what
my future would look like and of course, I would walk out of this place and feel
the fresh cold air of Minnesota on my face again, but that feeling was still an
amazing relief today. I have a feeling this second round is gonna work. I'm
going to get a stem cell transplant and grow some new bone marrow and this
leukemia will never again grow in my body. I know there's a possibility this
won't be my future but I'm choosing to believe it anyways.

As always, thank you for reading, and for your support. I love you all.

Matt

P.S. Our dog might look sad in the above photo but she is a super happy dog. You
can follow her on insta
[@dardarbinksthedog](https://www.instagram.com/dardarbinksthedog/) and see all
the fun she gets up to.