Monday, October 28, 2013

Remission Accomplished Again… Transplant is Next


10/8/12 – Today I met with Dr. Goy for my normal cycle follow up and to review the results of a PET scan I had last week. Dr. Goy said: “You are in full remission…. This makes me very happy”. After a couple of moments of silence he then said, looking at the research nurse, “So where are we with the transplant?”
10/28/13 - From that question until now the entire process has really accelerated. It is looking like the transplant with begin within the next couple of weeks.

Although my daughters and brother did not pan out as being good donors (even as half matches) there have been two near matches found. This mismatch part is in areas where it is not seem as being critical. With this being said, a request for donation has been made. Assuming the donor says yes and gets through the pre-testing… it sure looks like I will have my transplant before Thanksgiving.

To prepare for this I have a dental appointment scheduled for October 30th to make sure I have non issues with my teeth. On Friday, November 1st I will go through all my work up tests at Hackensack University Medical Center. On Tuesday, November 5th I have my normal cycle visit with Dr. Goy. On Monday, November 11th I have a Transplant Class where I will get an education on what I am really getting myself into. According to my Transplant Coordinator, this is a very good chance I will be in the hospital before November 11th. On top of that I have begun getting all the other details of my life in order (leave from work, etc…).

The way it works is that once the donor is fully committed to provide me the gift of his bone marrow and a date to extract the bone marrow is set, we need to count back about 9 days. That will be the day I check into the hospital. I will get chemo for about 8 days and on the very next day the bone marrow will be infused.

I just know that everything will work out for me.

This bring me back to a prayer that my pastor taught me back in 2008:

"Jesus, I believe in you and you will take care of me.
Jesus, I believe in you and you will give me peace"


All the battles of my life are the Lord’s. As I stand in faith, He fights them for me. 1 Samuel 17:47

More to come…