Thank you for all of the support, you guys! I'm hanging in there! I started a harsher regimen of chemo this week; they call it "salvage chemo." The process for an autologous stem cell transplant is to first do salvage chemo (in my case, probably 3 cycles, or 9 weeks) then they give you a drug to put your bone marrow into overdrive to create as many stem cells as possible (stem cells are baby cells that grow up to become red blood cells, white blood cells, etc.) After that, they'll harvest my stem cells, sucking the blood out and separating out the stem cells and pumping the rest back in -- I'll be just sitting there in front of the machine while that happens. I'll do this until they get what they need (5 million per kilogram of body weight.) This could take several sessions, or just one, it depends on the person. After that, once they've rescued the stem cells, they'll give me really high dose chemo -- so strong that if they hadn't put my stem cells away for safekeeping, I wouldn't be able to recover because I'd be unable to create more. The idea here is to give crushing, killing chemo to obliterate any remaining cancer cells that might be hiding. THEN they put the stem cells back in, and the 3-4 weeks following are spent in relative misery while those cells are "engrafted," or reassimilated, into my system.
Fascinating stuff, isn't it??? I am just amazed and so grateful that this procedure exists and carries the opportunity for a cure!
I'll have quite a bit of a recovery afterwards, and I might not ever experience my pre-transplant energy levels or stamina, but I don't have any other choice. So what do you do when there's no choice? You suck it up and make the best of it!
Anyway, hope I didn't gross you guys out or freak you out -- just wanted to explain what I'm going to do in case you didn't know what a stem celll transplant was. (I know I didn't and was pretty happy about that!
)
I've heard people refer to Hodgkins Disease (lymphoma) as "cancer light." It really pisses me off to hear that, or that it's "the good cancer." Since my fight began last year, I've known 4 people who've died from it. (And only like 7,200 Americans get diagnosed a year!) My primary transplant doctor (there's a team) told me that if I can manage to get into remission prior to the SCT, I'll have a 60-70% chance of a cure (with long term side effects and risk of future disease, most frequently leukemia.) Those numbers are a lot better than some folks hear, so I'm ready for a fight!
So far, so good. I'm holding up pretty well -- I'm not going to go into too much detail here because I fear I've grossed you guys out enough already, but all in all, I'm weathering this first cycle pretty well. I've completed the treatment for Cycle One, now I just have 3 weeks of recovery before I go into Cycle Two -- which will be considerably stronger. (Which makes me HAPPY!!) After that, I'm pretty sure I'm going to get another cycle before harvesting and starting the SCT process.
God bless modern science, eh? Not so long ago, my initial diagnosis would have been a death sentence -- much less this relapse. Oh! I should mention that my relapse is just in one spot -- although that's a 4 cm tumor, ick! -- but at least it's not "systemic," or all over the place, like it was at the time of my diagnosis!
Anyway, I'm tough, and motivated to do whatever is necessary to just get to the other side.
Let's get this party started!
Thanks again for the support -- I had no idea you guys were still thinking of me!
activeadventurer , 07-08-2006 09:07 AM
alphabetsoup , 07-09-2006 04:44 PM
SuchAPrettyFace , 07-14-2006 02:45 PM
Gardenwife , 07-14-2006 02:58 PM
DishyFishy , 07-14-2006 04:12 PM
lessofsarahtolove , 07-14-2006 10:07 PM
famograham , 07-15-2006 05:31 PM
