We saw the bone marrow transplant specialist Friday afternoon. He agreed with my oncologist, so we are proceeding with doing the transplant. With my kind of lymphoma it's hard to predict what the outcomes will be for different treatments, but both doctors agree the transplant is probably the best course of action at this point.
It will be an autologous transplant, meaning they will harvest the stem cells from my blood. This is a new procedure, they used to take them from the bone marrow, but the results are much better with stem cells from your blood. They don't have to hospitalize you as long and you can spend most of your recovery period as an outpatient.
The sequence of events will be:
1) This week, probably Thursday, I will spend most of the day getting various tests and scans done. The results will be submitted to the insurance company to get their approval. If for some reason they won't let Scripps do the transplant, then they will refer me to a different transplant center. I'm praying that they will approve the transplant at Scripps, because I have a high degree of confidence in their care.
2) If no insurance complications, then the last week of February, they will harvest the stem cells from my blood, then I will be getting the "conditioning" or chemo/radiation. This will take about 2 to 4 days, depending on how the stem cell harvest goes. Sometimes they get enough after one session, and sometimes they need more sessions. I will be an outpatient, so I can go home each day.
3) First week in March, probably the first Monday, they will give me the transplant, the stem cells they harvested and then froze, through a transfusion. The stem cells make their way to the bone marrow from the blood stream, and start to rebuild my marrow and produce new blood cells.
4) At this point, my blood counts will be very low, and I'll be very weak and susceptible to infection, so I'll be hospitalized for about 3 weeks. As soon as my blood counts come back up and I regain my strength they will release me as an outpatient. I will spend 4-6 weeks at home regaining my strength. I will be going in frequently for lab tests and progress checks. All total I'll be out of work about two months, March and April. As soon as I feel strong enough, and the doctors agree, I'll be back at work. I'm hoping before the end of April.
So, this will be another challenging phase in this battle. My family and I cherish your prayers and appreciate your love and support. We have confidence and hope in the Lord's plan for us, He has always helped us in the past and we know He will in the future also.
Soli Deo Gloria!
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