Update on Mom

Before I left for my three-hour tour in Vegas, I went with my mom to her first appointment with her bone marrow transplant team. She will be on schedule to have a transplant sometime in October. They feel that her cancer is such that she will be a great candidate for an autologous stem cell transplant. This means they try to harvest enough of her own stem cells to transplant back into her body instead of getting an outside donor (allogeneic transplant). She will finish this round of chemo and then have one more round (her third) and then they give her one-week off of chemo so she bounces back. After this they give her a shot to increase her own production of stem cells. When they feel her numbers are good, they will install a central line and do the harvest, this central line will be with her for a few months. Sometimes the harvest is done in one day; sometimes it takes a few weeks. It depends on how her body expunges her cells. The transplant team tries to extract or harvest enough for up to 3 cell transplants. When the have enough they put her stem cells in the freezer and give her a week to rest. Then she is in the hospital for 3-4 weeks. She will be admitted and they give her 2 days of intense chemo treatments. Then she gets 1-2 days off before she has the actual transplant. This is what they call day 0. All days before this are numbered in the negative (in other words she is admitted on day -4.) On or around day 6 (so 6 days after her transplant, 10 days after chemo) she will lose her hair and start feeling really shatty. Mom has already made us promise to shave her head before she goes in for transplant because she does not want it to come out in clumps. About day 14 they analyze how she is doing. If her body has started to produce stem cells again they will send her home. If she has not started they keep her in the hospital until she does. Worst-case scenario is that it does not work and they look for an allo transplant donor. This is so unlikely that they only mention it because it happens less than 1%, but it could happen. After she is released, she will be a homebody for a few weeks. She will have little to no immune system. The chemo eradicates it. My father and I are her primary care givers. Someone has to be with her 24 hours a day for the first bit. While she is not looking forward to a transplant she is happy that she is a candidate for it and that there is an option for her treatment. Best case scenario she will have 3-5 years symptom free. By that time who know what treatments will be available for her. She will be able to do another transplant at that time as well to give her another 3-5 years. We like these options and are hopeful for the best.