Bone Marrow Transplant

It appears that I'll be admitted on the 16th in preparation for bone marrow transplant.  If everything goes according to plan I will receive Jennifer's stem cells on the 26th.  That's the short story.

The medium story:

I will spend the next 12 days participating in various exams and medical procedures.  I'll spend my spare time reviewing and signing consent forms.  The I being referred to here is really Emily and I.  We will be busy.

Once admitted to the hospital, on the 16th, the first six days will involve radiation therapy.  That will be followed with two days of high dose cytoxin, another chemo drug.  That will be followed with a one day break.  On the 26th, or tenth day after admission, I would receive Jennifer's stem cells.

After that there is, generally, a period of about 30 days where I will remain at the hospital for monitoring.  They will be looking for engraftment, that is when the new stem cells begin to properly act as my bone marrow.  They will also be watching for signs of GVHD, graft versus host disease.  GVHD is common and it can be life threatening.  GVHD is also complicated.  It is a lot like cancer.  There are thousands of forms of cancer.  There are, similarly, many forms of GVHD.

Once I am released from the hospital, which will likely be no less than six weeks after admittance, I will remain under close observation for at least a year and probably more.  More than 50% of patients with similar disease and treatment indicated that a reasonable quality of life returns after one year, according to surveys; for the remaining patients it is two or three years before quality of life returns to something approaching acceptable.

That's the end of the medium story.  The long story is very long.  I won't be sharing it.  Emily and I will live it.  All of you wonderful readers will hear of it and many of you will help us through it.  Children are resilient, I'm counting on that.  Jonas and Max will make it through this as well.

It's late.  I need to go to bed.  It has been another good day.  Rubber bands were shot, wiffle balls were struck.  How could that not be a good day?

The picture of the day.  I wasn't stoned, I wish I was, but I wasn't.  I took this picture while shaving my hair earlier this year.  That first round of chemo had it falling out fast.