Altaloman IN ALTAcities
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Dee Dee and I, now retired since January 2010, are thankfully enjoying our retirement years because of the successful treatment from MCL, an acronym for mantle cell lymphoma.
In late October 2011, we changed our home residence for the 20th time in 40 years of marriage. Our last move is to the community of Trilogy at Glen Ivy, a golf course 55+ retirement community just south of Corona in Southern California, where I was elected the vice president of the 1317-member homeowner association (HOA) in 2022.
Going back a few years, in March 2006, I contracted one of the most aggressive forms of mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). We never got lasting remission from some 16 different chemo treatments while waiting for an unrelated donor stem cell transplant (MUD SCT), the only medical procedure that offers hope of a cure for MCL. We completed the SCT on August 22, 2007.
Shortly, we were well into a second year cancer-free, knowing that recovery was steady but slow with some skin rash (GVH), still on Feb. 25, 2008, I returned to work on a part-time basis. Then, in late-July 2008, I returned to work on a full-time basis. But the MCL returned in July 2009 and a month later I started TomoTherapy (radiation) that was successful and returned to medical leave status until March 2010 and officially retired because my former work was largely dealing with grateful, but sick hospital patients, making the risk of contact a serious threat to my health.
While cancer-free at this time (17 years since 2007 SCT), the immune system seems to be almost normal, but not without certain precautions. To help boost the immune system, I have been getting periodic infusions of immunoglobulin and a miracle drug called Rituxan, a unique therapy that works by selectively depleting CD20+ B-cells. B-cells, and their role in cancer and autoimmune diseases. My doctors say that these infusions may continue indefinitely but become less frequent. See my blog and social media sites for more details now and in the future.
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