T + 8....So far, so good

Friends, I am now 8 days post transplant and feeling so much better than I thought I would.  Docs have unhooked me from 24 hour IV fluids and now I'm getting fluids for just 3 hours a day....the balance is up to me, so I'm drinking an average of 4 or 5 bottles of water a day.   Anti rejection meds are given twice a day, at 5 am and 5 pm, and blood work is collected at 3am....so is it any wonder that my new wake up time is closer to 8:30am than my normal 6:30am??   I can't wait to get home just to normalize my sleep.

I don't spend any time during the day in my bed.   Dr. Tse says that's a no-no.   I need to be up and in a chair or just walking around the unit....as long as I have a mask on so as not to catch any potential illness.   My appetite is good as a matter of fact....not like last time when it took me weeks to recover it and I dropped 20 pounds.   So I am thankful that nutrition wise, I'm getting the calories and proteins I need to regain strength and stamina.

The actual grafting of Bruce's cells should begin any day now....my prayer is that they find their way to the bone marrow, that the anti rejection drugs do their job, and that these immature little stem cells begin producing the white and red cells as well as platelets that will be the building blocks of my new immune system.

I'm so incredibly lucky and blessed that the donor was my brother.   This will help minimize potential complications and aid in the overall long term development of my immune system.   What a selfless act of love, generosity, and human kindness.

Transplant #2 is here!!

For about the last month and a half I have felt as close to 100% as I possibly could. In fact I found myself working at the office on almost a regular schedule of 40-50 hours a week.  That's one reason I haven't blogged here too much....there was not a whole lot to report on.

So who would have thought that barely two months have passed and I am now staring at a second stem cell transplant.   The first one was an AUTOLOGOUS transplant, aka, an "auto", where my own stem cells are harvested and used.   But this second transplant will be using a donors stem cells in hopes of a life saving cure from the plasma cell leukemia.  This transplant is an ALLOGENEIC transplant, aka, an "allo".

But we found a donor and turns out it's my brother!!  There's a prayer that was answered!   Today, Bruce spent six hours harvesting stem cell's from his bloodstream that will be transfused into my bone marrow on Tuesday afternoon.

I have a total body radiation on Tuesday just after lunch and then sometime late afternoon, they will actually do the transplant, which as I mentioned, is simply a transfusion of his cells into my bone marrow.

Thanks for all the ongoing support and prayers....a lot going on Tuesday as well as the coming months.    I'll be back to report on how things went.    Fingers crossed!!