In accordance with my usual schedule, "standard" chemo stopped this last Monday. (June 11) Hopefully it's gone for good. I got my monthly blood tests done yesterday with the expected results. My "M spike" has stabilized and all my blood numbers appear to be "normal". (They were pretty much normal last month too, but we elected to push the envelope a bit and stay on Dex one more time.)
And so, the numbers earned me a phone call and a couple of emails today. It's time for a drastic change. On July 9th, they'll insert an apheresis catheter in my chest (a port) and I'll begin giving myself GCSF (a growth factor) by injection twice a day.
What's gonna happen? GCSF makes bone marrow create stem cells. It also forces those stem cells into the bloodstream for collection. I expect to be in considerable pain for the duration of the collection because of the stress and strain of production and transfer. I'm not looking forward to it. Bone pain is something very few people ever get to experience.... but imagine being in pain, rather like the pain of a bruise, on every single inch of your skeleton. Movement hurts like hell. Breathing hurts. Doing anything, including just lying there, hurts. No, it's not excruciating, but it never stops. Never.
At the end, they'll collect blood and stem cells from the port. Then they'll seperate the stem cells from the rest of the blood cells they don't need, and then they'll freeze the stem cells for later use.
When it's time for the transplant...... they'll kill all my bone marrow and leave me with no immune system....... and re-infuse the stem cells so they can grow into new bone marrow. That'll be 21 to 45 days of hell. Part of it will be in the hospital (again).
Progress is scary.
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This blog is written by and about a guy with an incurable form of cancer. My purpose here isn't to say "woe is me", but to give insight about my thoughts, perspectives, and experiences throughout this adventure. My name is Andre. My partner's name is Ed. I intend to publish on a pretty regular basis here, but Ed might occasionally pop in with his thoughts too.
1 comment:
Hey Andre, it's Jeff from Dallas. I had the black CBR 600RR in 2003 and 2004. Anyways, I talked to Jason tonight and he said you had moved to Seattle and were battling cancer. I know what you and Ed are going through...my BF of almost a year had Hodgkin's disease and did the whole chemo and radiation thing. Anyway, I'd love to talk to you again.
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