To All Sunday, August 6th was the 7th annual cruise on the Hudson River, with a buffet lunch & a deejay, to celebrate life. The boat was bigger & the attendance the largest to date--more than 300 people--bmt patients joined by family & friends.
Dr. Michael Schuster, head of the bmt program at NY Presbyterian/Cornell-Weil, announced that there were 120 people aboard who had transplants. He asked us if we could pick them out of the crowd--no one could. He spoke briefly about new drugs for cml & the progress being made in reducing the effects of gvhd. The horizon is bright & promising. On the 2001 cruise I met Eleanor & George Soos. When Eleanor was diagnosed in '99, she was told to 'get her affairs in order.' Then she got to Dr. Schuster & she joined the Gleevec trial. She's alive & well. Has some fatigue but her life is rich & normal. So each year Eleanor & I meet; we phone each other a couple of times a year. It's a lovely 'consequence' of having cml in common. Another lovely consequence was seeing Cathy & Jeff Kramer; this was their 1st cruise. We 'met' on the list & arranged a lunch meeting with a couple of other cml'ers a about 5 years ago. Cathy works for one of the donor registries(I don't have my notes or I'd tell you which one.) Jeff is in remission, having been on interferon. He's also been off medication for about 3 yrs.--if I'm remembering correctly. Jeff was on interferon before Gleevec was approved; his dr. kept him on it because his response was good, though he did have some unpleasant side effects. So we see our old friends & meet some new ones. Seeing the nurses is always fun. They're so happy to see us. There are hugs & how-are-you's. It's a fabulous feeling. We all leave happy. Very best regards Ruth Marcon --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ [CMLHope] A support group of http://cmlhope.com ------------------------------------------------- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CMLHope" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/CMLHope -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
