Day +534

I got over the rest of the cold reasonably quickly. As expected, the chimerism results came back 100% my own cells. The fertility testing came back completely normally. I misunderstood how the immunization titer testing would be handled. They actually didn't test for it at my followup, so I'll see my PCP at some point when I'm not at school and get that done. Dr. Burt didn't say it was terribly pressing and that I need to take care of it right away so I'll wait until it's more convenient. Other than that, I'm still feeling great. No symptoms whatsoever.

Day +507, 1 Year Followup

I managed to get a cold a few days before going to Chicago, but it hasn't been that bad. I'm still not quite over it, but I think I will be soon. I saw my GI, Dr. Yun, on Monday. It was pretty uneventful - just a normal assessment. I'm going to take Aciphex every other day now and see if that's enough to take care of the reflux. I'm still not on any Crohn's medications. I got my blood drawn afterwards, including for one last chimerism test, which was just part of the protocol for the 1 year followup. No expectation for it to have changed since last time.

I had a colonoscopy on Wednesday. Everything went very well for that. There were no signs of active Crohn's Disease, just leftover scarring and pseudopolyps. Dr. Yun took biopsies all throughout and those showed no signs of active Crohn's, as well.

I had an MR enterography (same process as last time) and then saw Dr. Burt on Friday. When I met with Dr. Burt, he had the results. Again, no signs of active Crohn's Disease. Regarding the blood work results, everything was fine. My sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein (inflammatory markers) were barely above normal. That is most likely due to my cold, though, given the rest of the tests showing no issues.

Dr. Burt was, of course, extremely happy with how I am doing. So pleased that he won't let me have another colonoscopy unless I start to have symptoms. The results regarding whether or not I'll need my immunizations again will take a while longer to come back, as will the chimerism test. I'll post another update about that when the time comes. After that, there isn't much else to be concerned with other than how long I stay Crohn's-free.

Day +489

Not much to report on the health front. I still feel great. Only got sick once during the semester, which surprised me a bit.

I'll be in Chicago from January 6th-12th for my followup. I'm scheduled for a colonoscopy, abdomen MRI, blood work (including immunization titer), fertility testing, and appointments with the GI and Dr. Burt. At the latest, I'll post an update at the end of that week.

Day +445

It's been close to 3 months since my last update, and not all that much has happened since. I got a sinus infection a few weeks ago that a 10 day course of antibiotics took care of, but nothing really noteworthy other than that. I had some labs drawn last week that were all normal. I had some minor GI issues for a couple days that passed - it was probably just something I ate. Other than that, no symptoms to speak of!

I'm working on setting up my followup at Northwestern in January over my winter break. I can guess how most of the testing would come back at this point, but I still don't know if I'll need my immunizations again. I'll try not to go quite this long without updating again, but assume no news is good news.

Day +365

Well, today is my immune system's "birthday." I wanted to have made a video by now for prospective patients talking about the decision to do a stem cell transplant now that I'm a year out, but moving, getting ready for school, and my computer breaking has delayed that. Hopefully I can get it done soon.

I'm still symptom free, though, and I can stop the last antibiotic, Acyclovir. Now I'm just on Aciphex for reflux, and Claritin and Nasonex for seasonal allergies. There really isn't anything else health related worth mentioning for now. I'll go into more detail in the video.

Day +320

I'm still doing really well - symptom free. I had my wisdom teeth removed last Thursday and that went very well. Not much bleeding afterwards, the pain meds didn't make me really out of it, and they had me do a 5 day course of Clindamycin while my gums healed to prevent an infection.

 Scheduling didn't work out to have a follow up this summer, so I'll be going sometime in January instead. Since I'm doing well, Dr. Burt is fine with putting it off until after the fall semester. I'll go ahead and stop taking Acyclovir at the 1 year mark.

Day +290

I'm still doing great. My allergies are in check and I have no symptoms to speak of.

I had the growth hormone testing a few weeks ago and saw my endocrinologist last week. The results were fine, and he was content with the latest set of labs for now, so I won't need to supplement growth hormone. I'll still follow up with him twice a year for the time being because it's hard to know exactly what the transplant might affect. I'm hoping to get my 1 year follow up scheduled soon for sometime in July.