New Month, New Challenges, Happy February…
I was going to post an update sooner, but my stress level has been at 10 and my thoughts have been all over the place...
I've gone through a two week period in which I really questioned going through this whole process again. In in all honesty, I did not know if I wanted to put myself through this again. The simplist analogy I can think of is if you've never had a root canal there would be a certain amount of fear of the unknown, because you don’t know what to expect. Now take and multiply that fear factor by 10 and you have the inner feelings of going through a stem cell transplant. Then, muliply the pain difference from a root canal to stem tranplant by a factor of 50 and you understand how I've felt. I've been through this process; I know what's coming... However, my focus is back in place and its Fight 2 Win, period, end of paragraph.
I went to City of Hope for a battery of tests on Monday; pulmonary test, kidney function test, echocardiogram and a CT scan, the pulmonary test levels are below normal due to disease in my chest and the scan reported some minor growth over the last month. I’m off Valproic Acid and the two other drugs that were part of the cocktail. I'm just taking some pain meds right now to curtail the side affects of HD.
They’re putting a port in on Monday and will start harvesting stem cells early next week…Late next week, I’m going to start MOPP as conditioning therapy. I should say MOP because I’m not going to take Prednisone as part of the regimen in high dose. I'm not sure how many rounds I'm going to have.
Hopefully, this will eridicate the HD from my body quickly and I won't have to endure too many rounds. Thereafter, I'll be admitted into the hosiptal for 5 days of high dose chemotherapy followed by the stem cell transplant. I'll be in the hospital for a 20 - 40 day stay, pending how fast my numbers come back to acceptable levels.
I need your prayers.
Fighting 2 Win,
-Alese
I've gone through a two week period in which I really questioned going through this whole process again. In in all honesty, I did not know if I wanted to put myself through this again. The simplist analogy I can think of is if you've never had a root canal there would be a certain amount of fear of the unknown, because you don’t know what to expect. Now take and multiply that fear factor by 10 and you have the inner feelings of going through a stem cell transplant. Then, muliply the pain difference from a root canal to stem tranplant by a factor of 50 and you understand how I've felt. I've been through this process; I know what's coming... However, my focus is back in place and its Fight 2 Win, period, end of paragraph.
I went to City of Hope for a battery of tests on Monday; pulmonary test, kidney function test, echocardiogram and a CT scan, the pulmonary test levels are below normal due to disease in my chest and the scan reported some minor growth over the last month. I’m off Valproic Acid and the two other drugs that were part of the cocktail. I'm just taking some pain meds right now to curtail the side affects of HD.
They’re putting a port in on Monday and will start harvesting stem cells early next week…Late next week, I’m going to start MOPP as conditioning therapy. I should say MOP because I’m not going to take Prednisone as part of the regimen in high dose. I'm not sure how many rounds I'm going to have.
Hopefully, this will eridicate the HD from my body quickly and I won't have to endure too many rounds. Thereafter, I'll be admitted into the hosiptal for 5 days of high dose chemotherapy followed by the stem cell transplant. I'll be in the hospital for a 20 - 40 day stay, pending how fast my numbers come back to acceptable levels.
I need your prayers.
Fighting 2 Win,
-Alese
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