Yep, I’m Still Hanging Out
It’s kind of an odd paradox I’m in.  On one hand, I feel good and everything is going well.  I’m able to spend time with the kids and do things I couldn’t do over the summer.  You would think I’d want this time to last.  But on the other hand, without further treatment, my cancer will come back.  Not may come back, but will come back.  Guaranteed.  Take it to the bank.  So I need further treatment.  And further treatment means this time of feeling good must come to an end.

So the hard part is knowing I need further treatment and knowing I have to wait.  Acute leukemia patients aren’t used to waiting.  In many cancers you have to wait for an appointment.  Wait for a PET or MRI.  Wait for results.  With leukemia you can get a quick blood draw, see your life flash before your eyes, and then move on to treatment.  If you don’t move on, you’ll be dead in weeks, so it’s usually best if you do.  I know my time is coming, so I’m trying to enjoy my current state.  But truth be told, I’d rather just be admitted tomorrow and start the SCT process.

Continue reading Downtime

Back to See Larry 
I forgot to mention it yesterday, but I needed to get another Bone Marrow Aspiration (BMA).  Not for fear of relapse or anything like that, but instead I had to do it as part of the transplant protocol.  Transplant protocol requires a BMA within 30 days of admission to show that you are in remission.  Granted, you can transplant even when you aren’t in remission, but they prefer you to be in remission.  My last BMA was 8/24.  My original transplant admission was 9/22, so that was within the 30 days.  My new admission date of 10/9 is not within the 30 days, thus another BMA.

Having Dr. Cripe drill into my hip wasn’t exactly the way I wanted to reunite with him. Granted, it was still good to see him.  He even made a joke about my fanny.  Yes, Larry cracked a smile while making a butt joke.  Good to see I’m rubbing off a bit.  I’m not sure why it never occured to me before, but I’ve never actually seen my marrow.  So this time when it was all done, I asked to see it and was able to look into a bloody petri dish and see little specs of marrow.  This is my 6th bone marrow aspiration and this one didn’t seem to hurt as much.  That might just be because I’m getting used to them or it could have been the oxycontin and ativan I took before my appointment.  Tough to tell really.

Continue reading Some Bone Marrow Didn’t Make It

Fall is a Lovely Time of Year for a Transplant 
Donor #2 has come through!  Now he just needs a name.  There are some who wanted to make a play on the whole “number 2” bit when naming said donor, but I think that was a pretty crappy idea.  Even though humor runs in the family, some still strain to be funny.  While my humor comes out rather easily, others must sit awhile to get theirs out.  Rest assured, you won’t see any nutty names for Mr. Donor as it relates to “number 2”.  So what will donor #2 be called?

Dominick the donor, aka Dom, aka Donor Of Marrow.  Dom has agreed to give his cells to little old me.  I will be admitted on October 9th and the transplant will occur on October 16th.

The Slightly Altered Transplant Plan
Because I’m getting admitted on a Friday, the schedule has changed a bit.  Originally I was going to get 4 days of radiation first and then chemo.  Now I am getting the chemo first since they don’t do radiation on the weekend.  I’ll get a high dose of Etoposide, which has all the fun side effects of chemotherapy.  When you read up on Etoposide, there are a list of side effects and the author tries to reassure you that some of the side effects only happen in higher doses.  Well, that’s me.  Mr. Higher Dose.

I’ll also get a central catheter placed on the 9th.  This one will be a bit different from the PICC, as it will be under my collar-bone and come out of my chest.  It will still have 2 lumens so that I can receive multiple infusions at the same time.  It will be placed while I am under sedation, so the 9th promises to be a loopy day.

I’ll rest on Saturday and Sunday while the chemo does its job and then I’ll get radiation on Monday through Thursday.  Again, it will be a morning and afternoon session each day.  Then on Friday they’ll bring in a bag of blood that contains my new stem cells.  They’ll hook it up, pump it into me, and then we’ll wait for the little stemmies to burrow into their new home in my bones and start producing blood cells.  

Continue reading It’s a Date!