Today, July 16 is Day 0 + 30
Make a statement
First a quick note about the video above. When I left Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, my nurse asked if I wanted to ring the bell. My first thought was “not really,” but I immediately realized that I needed to make a statement. Beating cancer in any form, including AML, is huge. So, when I got to ring the bell, I rang it with gusto. I think Iris quit recording before I got through ringing. 😊
Now this may sound strange to you but let me take you back to a story I remember from childhood Sunday School.
2 Kings 13
18 Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and the king took them. Elisha told him, “Strike the ground.” He struck it three times and stopped. 19 The man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times
This is the exact story from 2 Kings 13 I remembered as I rang the bell. I wanted to declare complete victory. In the name of Jesus and by the power He gave me, Leukemia is defeated in my life forever!
Does this story apply scripturally to my story? Maybe, maybe not. I’m not really sure, nor have I thought about it much. I don’t care. It brought me to the point of realizing that I needed to make a statement on my healing. That works for me.
Not every day was a picnic.
I’ll confess during the preparation for my BMT and the aftermath, I had a few days that weren’t fun. The large number of wide-ranging chemicals being applied to the body was a bit overwhelming. Fortunately, it didn’t require much of me, other than sit up and take the meds I was given.
I knew but realize even more that performing a BMT is a process that’s constantly evolving and to make it more fun, no two people react exactly the same way. However, I took some comfort when I mentioned another symptom, and the doctor immediately came back with, “oh, yeah, that’s a reaction to Drug-A that we gave you two weeks ago.’ It wasn’t just me. I wasn’t running off to create new symptoms. They knew about it and already had a plan of action.
Thank God for good people who have already blazed a course!
The good news keeps coming.
I really like the MyChart app, used by both Novant and AHWFB. I’m constantly getting test reports, alerts, and messages. In fact, I got one late yesterday afternoon. It was later in the evening when I actually saw it. The letter is from the Molecular Genetic Laboratory at AHWFB.
The test is listed as Chimerism Post Transplant Studies. If you look up Chimerism, it will refer you to Chimera, which Merriam-Webster defines as, “an individual, organ, or part consisting of tissues of diverse genetic constitution.” https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chimera Right now, that would be me. I have competing mixed DNA, and my blood type was A-, whereas my donor is A+. (I’m glad these folks know what they’re doing.)
This test is to determine how much of my DNA is me and how much is my donor. The goal is me = 0% and the donor = 100%. The test report on a blood sample taken on Day0 + 28 says, “Positive for donor alleles only for Adolphus Stonestreet on the analysis of a post-transplantation sample. Semiquantitative analysis indicates the presence of approximately 100% donor DNA.”
Well, hallelujah! I’m fairly sure you can’t do better than 100%. 😊 I can live with that. Literally.
Where does that leave me?
We’ve crossed a lot of hurdles since November 2021, and there are a few more to clear.
Since I no longer have the natural and acquired immunities from my 70-year history anymore. I’ll be careful about being around anyone with anything that could be transmitted, however slight. I won’t be in public much and in no group settings for a while. In a couple of months, I’ll have COVID antibodies administered, not a vaccine. Six months after my transplant, roughly mid-December, I’ll be treated like a newborn and started on a 2-year program to get all my old vaccines again. Sound like fun?
Maybe not fun, but I’ll still stand with Paul as he wrote to his supporters in Philippi.
Philippians 1:3–6 (ESV)
3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Having begun this good work in me, I trust God will see it to completion through the finished work of Jesus on the cross.
In His love,
Wayne
