Stem cells ordered

I am on my fourth day of full strength azacitidine tomorrow. Its going well but it does make you tired and all the other symptoms mentioned in earlier Blogs - but you get used to it and just carry on.

The Transplant Coordinator  came and had a chat with me this afternoon when I was waiting for my jabs. As we are all sure the transplant will go ahead, unless something very weird happens when I get my bone marrow results, she has decided to go ahead and order the stem cells (bone marrow) from my preferred donor. All I know is that he or she lives in this country and is a 100% match. The logic is that if the transplant goes ahead quickly; say end of September; then we might just be able to tie in with the donor's timescales. If not it is relatively easy to change the date. Meanwhile the donor will be confirmed, checked out medically and a tentative date set.

She also booked me in on the Sept 2nd to have my pre-transplant medical - heart, lungs, kidney, bloods, etc

So if we go down the line of no pre-conditioning chemo, then I might be admitted last week in Sept for a transplant the week after. This would give me time to get fitter, have dental treatment and anything else needed. My rendition of 'When the Saints' on the clarinet is nearly good enough for listeners to approach within say half a mile. Well, at least with ear defenders on! It does give you a great work out for the lungs. And walking up 4 floors at the hospital each day helps heart and lungs

So the next step is bone marrow results on Monday, after which the dates might well change. But its more progress