For those of you who dont know: my medical team thought I would be a good candidate for a stem cell transplant / high dose chemotherapy treatment done with the bone marrow team at Vancouver General Hospital. It is a lengthy, and at times, physically challenging procedure, but I feel fortunate to be able to go through it because it doesnt work for all cancer types. For my case (lymphoma in the brain/central nervous system), this procedure is quite new, but theyve been having really good success in the few patients that have received this treatment...thanks to a doctor from the Tom Baker Cancer Centre in Calgary who has been pioneering this treatment specifically for lymphoma in the central nervous system. Essentially, how it works: the medical team will remove my stem cells by hooking me up to a machine that cycles my blood and pulls out the stem cells. After being removed, my stem cells are frozen. A week later, Ill be admitted to the Vancouver General Hospital, and when ready, theyll give me a high dose of chemo that essentially kills off any remaining cancer cells that might have gone undetected in an MRI or CT scan. The problem is... This high dose of chemo also kills off most of my bone marrow/immune system (which is why they take out the stem cells). After I recover from chemo and being in isolation for a week, they put my stem cells back in and like magic, my bone marrow/immune system regenerates:) Like I said: I feel fortunate to be able to do this procedure...its like a long term insurance policy and piece of mind. I will be in Vancouver for the month of October...lots of prep work, tests, etc. I just finished up my appointments for the day. All good. Stem cell collection tomorrow and then the fun begins next week. I get admitted to the hospital at some point and then high dose chemo treatment shortly after. The chemo is going to knock the @&$@! out of my immune system, so theyre putting me in isolation for a week so I dont pick up any bugs. Thats going to be a tough few weeks to get through:( However, knowing the results thus far makes everything a bit easier to deal with. Plus: my lovely Kara will be here to help me through the hard part:) Ill keep you all posted as to how this next adventure unfolds. Take care and chat soon.
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 00:00:10 +0000
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