Day 85 - GO JACKETS!

Today's the big day. Tech vs. Georgia. The winner will be the one who has the fewest turnovers, which probably translates into who's QB makes the fewest mistakes. Although Reggie Ball, Tech's QB, has had a spotty career, he's still a senior and has had many big games. Stafford, GA's QB is a true freshman who has had only one big game (against Auburn - where AU turned the ball multiple times). I think Tech's defense will put a lot of pressure on Stafford and he will cough up the ball a few times - Tech wins.

Medically, today is Day 85 post transplant. I had an infusion of a big bag of Rituxan yesterday here in Atlanta at St. Joseph's hospital. That was an 8 hour day in "the chair."

As you will recall from previous posts I'm on a protocol to get some of my donor's lymphocytes to boost my "new" system. My old system has fought back against the new system and gained some ground on it, unfortunately. So the donor lymphocytes, which are white blood cells, are being brought in to reinforce the new system. The idea of the stem cell transplant is for the new system to completely kill off what's left of my old diseased system after the pre-transplant chemotherapy. If the old marrow and blood system doesn't cooperate fully, then lymphocytes (white blood cells) from the donor are brought in as reinforcements to finish killing off the old marrow and blood cells.

Along with lymphocytes they also treat me with Rituxan, the monoclonal antibody that kills CLL diseased cells. They will treat me twice with Rituxan before the donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI) and twice after. All treatments are roughly a week apart. The Rituxan is supposed to beat back my old diseased cells which are trying to return. Using the military analogy again, we are going to bomb the enemy lines (with Rituxan) and then rush them with the help of the reinforcements.

Yesterday's infusion was the second of the two pre-DLI Rituxan infusions. Next week I will go back to Houston to get the DLI. I'm suppose to get the DLI on Wednesday at 1:00, then I'll hop on a plane and come back home. I'll get at least two or three more DLI's after this one, so this will go on through the winter. I won't have to get Rituxan with the subsequent DLI's, though.

We had a little delay in getting this second Rituxan infusion when I turned up positive for Hepatitis antibodies, meaning I might have contracted Hepatitis. They drew blood before I left Houston to test for live Hepatitis viruses. After a week and half the test came back negative. Whew! Rituxan and Hepatitis don't mix, so if the live virus test had been positive, I would not have been able to get the Rituxan, which would greatly reduce the chance of the DLI working. If this series of DLI's doesn't work I will get another transplant, which wouldn't be a lot of fun.

Interestingly, my red blood count may have started to climb. It was 4.07 Tuesday, the first time above 4 in a long time. It dropped back to 3.85 yesterday (Friday), but my white count showed some stability yesterday for the first time in a long time. The white count hasn't been able to stay up without the help of Neupogen shots since before the transplant. But yesterday it was still up versus Tuesday's readings, and I didn't need my heretofor semi-weekly Neupogen.

The increase in the red blood count had stalled out about a month ago. This was about the time the lymph nodes in my neck had started to come back a little, too. In retrospect this may have been about the time the transplant started to falter a little. So if these counts continue to make progess it could be that the new system is back on track defeating my old leukemic cells.

Meanwhile, I've got a good amount of energy. I've worked every day since being back home. Well I did take the first day back off. I've caught up on some chores around the house, too, although I have to wear a mask and gloves if I do much outside. Dr. Khouri also consented to letting me have some fresh fruit if it has a thick peel like bananas and oranges do. Lynda has to peel it while not touching the inside while I catch the inside without touching the outside. (You ought to see that circus.) Apparently fruit and vegetables grow various bacteria, mold, etc. on the outside which is harmless to healthy people but can be deadly to a transplant patient. I still can't have any uncooked vegetables, though.

But progess is being made and it is nice to be back home. Even problems at work don't seem like big deals any more. It's all a matter of perspective, I guess.