Almost Ready ...

to give up all illusions of control or knowing. The female donor "declined", no more info. Suddenly the 25 year old man looks so promising they tell me they might get me in the hospital in a week for the transplant. I hope they give me a day's notice or two. I must go get all my tests done again, including bone marrow extraction, the day of Lucy's graduati0n. My stem cell coordinator is in the Amazon, so communication is even sketchier than usual.

Here is what the process will be: seven days of intense chemo to kill my bone marrow, and hopefully any cancer. A day of rest to clear it out of my blood. The donor's stem cells are transported to me by courier, and dripped in via the IV. They figure out to go to my bone marrow and bring it back to life. In the period until they engraft, I am most at risk for infection. But I will be immuno suppressed for at least six months, with the immune system of about an AIDS patient, pre-cocktail. The other major risk besides infection is Graft vs. Host Disease (GVHD) in which the stem cells recognize me as a foreign body and attack me - hence the immune suppression. 70% get at least a light case - skin and intestinal disturbances. GVHD can help fight any residual leukemia, so a little is OK. About 15% get severe cases, perhaps chronic, and let's all just pray I don't go there.

I will most likely be in the hospital 4-6 weeks. Then I will have a very active outpatient status for some period of time. I will probably be intensely fatigued and rather brain dead.

Every minute some part of my being is at work learning to surrender. There isn't much else to do at this point. I am enjoying time with family and friends, still eating up a storm, and I hiked two hours in the virgin redwoods the other day. I really feel quite well.

Keep you all posted.

Anne

Still Waiting

I am sorry I have gone so long without a post, but there has been little news. I should find out this week that the stem cell transplant is a go, and when I will enter the hospital. Most likely the first week of June. Somewhere along the way they shifted to donor #2, who is a 25 year old woman, no children. This is as good as it gets in the unrelated donor realm.

My parents and my brother Steve and his wife Pat were out to visit me this week. It was a fun and whirlwind four days of socializing and eating. Steve and Pat and six friends and family went to UCSF for a two hour meeting with the doc and the stem cell coordinator describing the process, as well as legally having to tell me odds and side effects in order to get me to sign consent forms. To balance all that, I have been in touch with three women who all had very successful transplants.

I am still having to get my blood tested twice a week and get platelet transfusions. It is anxiety provoking as well as frustrating due to medical bureaucratic snafus. My white blood count is somewhat low, but I remain healthy. I fatigue easily however. Emotionally, it is the expected roller coaster, although on the whole I remain positive.

I will post as soon as I know more.

Anne

The garden looks lovely. Dennis did much of the work, including putting in a sprinkler system.