Moving on to transplant!

After more time has passed the doctors think dad can move right to a bone marrow transplant! Here is an email he sent his children on Thursday 8/6.

Kids:

A long day. Left at 8:40am and returned about 5:30pm after two units of blood at PSL.

Talked to Dr. Maris. Current plan is to try and "fast track" a transplant. They are working on a donor and all the logistics. Could be in as little as three weeks. Back into the hospital for me in about two weeks assuming that I can maintain the status quo. Chances of a 5 year survival are 20-30%. I did not ask what the chances were of surviving the transplant. If we do nothing more, 100% chance of death. He did say that it may take 3-6 months which was longer than I had expected. Maybe I should have just played golf for another month?

He explained a bit about the marrow results. Apparently the "cellularity," a term I don't quite understand but I think that it means the normal cells in the marrow, had increased relative to the leukemia cells, therefore the relative blast count was better. Mouth sores look much improved.

Blood counts were discouraging. White blood count down to 700 from 900. No improvement in neutrophils. Red and platelets about even. My poor marrow has just had too much chemo (my opinion). He gave me a shot of neupogen to try and stimulate cell growth. He said that it does not tend to affect the leukemia much.

Felt really weak and lightheaded starting yesterday. Apparently my blood pressure drops when I sit or stand up which is sign of "lack of hydration" in the vascular system. Apparently this can happen even if I am drinking sufficiently. Told to increase the Gatorade and may have to go to IVs of water at the visits.

Still not feeling any positive effects from the blood. There is always tomorrow!

Dad