Hello Folks,
First, thank you for your prayers. The past 2 weeks were uneventful, which is a good thing. That all changed Monday when I went to Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist (AHWFB or Wake Forest) where we began discussion of bone marrow replacement. We learned a lot and came away with a much better understanding of the process.
I would have written last night but frankly my mind was tired. We spent 3.5 hours at AHWFB yesterday and finally left around 5:30 pm.
Getting Educated
This was not a treatment session, it was to help Iris and me understand what’s involved, how it will happen, and what will be expected. This was the first of a few sessions we’ll have. In addition, I have a deeper, 2-hour, online transplant orientation conference call next week. I also require a Dentist visit, a pre-transplant psychosocial evaluation, and a geriatric assessment. (I accused them of calling me old.) 😊
The closest thing to treatment was that they took 7 vials of blood for testing right before we left. That was to confirm a few things about my current condition and allow AHWFB to establish the DNA of my bone marrow so they can do a search of potential donors for a stem cell donor match. In addition, they’ll probably test some of my family as potential donors.
What are they looking for?
It was interesting that they don’t look for a blood-type match. And we all know DNA is different in everyone, but as Dr Howard explained it, there are a great number of similarities in all of us. They are specifically looking for someone who is at least a 50% bone marrow DNA match. Preferred donors are 18-40 years old with most doctors requesting a range of 18-35 years.
I also learned that AML (Acute Myeloid Leukemia) is an “old-person’s” disease. It almost always occurs in people over 60 years old. I think that’s one of the reasons they prefer a younger donor.
What I didn’t expect…
Probably the biggest surprise was the length of time involved. I knew it wouldn’t be a quick process, but I had no concept of time frame. I won’t go into all the details because it would take a book, but I can give you a rough timeline.
- 6-8 weeks to find, vet and acquire stem cells from a donor.
- 4 weeks in the hospital
- 1 week to kill my existing bone marrow, 3 weeks for the new marrow to “settle in”.
- 6 months to a year for everything to come back to normal.
- That includes being given any vaccines I’ve had in my life because they’ll all be destroyed when my bone marrow is destroyed.
- It also includes making sure I walk the tight rope of immune suppression
- so that initially my body doesn’t reject the stem cells
- and later as the new stem cells take over that they don’t reject my body.
What I do expect…
Are you beginning to get the picture? This is a complicated process that will take a while to complete. I’m praying to find favor. I normally do. I expect the donor process to go smoothly. I expect the treatment to go smoothly. And I expect full recovery in record time.
I AM is in control and I AM never loses. I rest in Him.
(If you don’t understand this reference, here’s a link “https://youtu.be/Z_2tG3DsuYs”. It relates to a short video Pastor shared a few weeks ago and which I shared with our men’s group.)
In His Love,
Wayne
