I went in for my pre-transplant clinic, expecting to hear that the date had not been finalised, or set for the end of October / or November
Instead it had all moved on.
I had my meeting, where they told me I would have my transplant in about 2 weeks! I then went through the whole process, side effects, how they would be mitigated against, and % risks in each major stage. As we had been through this before we understood it all, albeit needing some refreshing of memory - and there were a few differences as technology and drugs have moved on.
Seemingly my heart, kidneys and lungs and anything else they tested for are in top notch condition, and I am feeling very fit
I then had a bone marrow aspirate by Dave, who did a brilliant job - I hardly felt it. They will check that on Monday or Tuesday, and only if my blasts have rocketed would they deviate from the plan below. (If it had gone up badly, I would be whipped in for heavy duty extra chem inpatient stay)
So the schedule is
7th Oct - blood tests
8th Oct - have a line put in my chest so that all tests, intravenous medicines, transfusions etc can be done by that, which is great as it save having 10s of jabs a day
9th Oct - admitted to a Transplant isolation ward.
14th Oct High dose chem to wipe out my entire bone marrow, and mess with a few other things probably
16th Oct Stem cell transplant - which is just an infusion a bit like being given blood
Then for two week I will be given blood and platelets as needed, as the new bone marrow needs time to activate. During this period I am at risk of infection due to no white cells.
After 5 weeks or so I will be let out when my counts have come up - particular the white cells
Meanwhile they monitor carefully and pump me full of all manner of stuff to preempt problems or fix them
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