Postponed Again

Unfortunately, with all the delays, we have given the disease an opportunity to come back. The nodes began to come back last weekend. And by yesterday the nodes, especially in the left side of the neck, had become very large. So with progressive disease the transplant has to be put off. We'll get the lymph nodes back down and try again. The chances of a successful transplant decrease if you have active disease because that just adds to the work load for the new cells.

So instead of being on G11, the transplant floor, I'm now on G10, the chemo floor. I'm getting another round of the chemotherapy that I had three other times through the summer. Because of the potential effect on the kidneys, this stuff requires me to be in the hospital. So here I am - in the hospital in Houston. I'll get out on Sunday morning. This chemo worked remarkably well the other three times, so I'm hoping it will work a fourth time as well. The down side to this chemo is that it destroys the red blood count the second week after chemo, requiring multiple blood and platelet transfusions.

It takes three weeks for the chemo to run through your system, so we are shooting to start the transplant process in another three weeks. Due to the overall toxicity to various organs, we don't want to start the chemo (BEAM) that is used to ablate (kill off) the bone marrow until the other chemo has run it's course. New transplant date is around November 8. I'll be back in Atlanta until we are ready to try the transplant again. Hopefully, all these delays don't discourage my donor. I really need her to come through.

Thanks to everyone for checking on me and leaving comments. I appreciate having so many people care and keep me in their prayers. As I often say, I need all the help I can get. I need this chemo to work well and I need the donor to be available. If I can get over those two hurdles, and stay well, then maybe we can get a successful transplant.

As I wrote in my last post, getting all the factors to line up for a transplant is tricky. It's unnerving. to say the least, but that's just the way it is. It's not unusual.

Football wise, my prediction for the Tech vs. Miami game is 24 to 7. I don't have a clue which team will win. More predictions later, maybe, if I can get this slow hospital internet connection to work.