Overload

September 16, 2011

I am not sure if everyone knows this, but between Muskegon and Ann Arbor there are three, count them….three Cracker Barrels along the way.  My dad has each one memorized with the exit numbers…. both ways if anyone is interested. 

Upon arrival at U of M, mom offered up more blood and then we met with Dr. Goldstein to discuss what all is involved in the stem cell transplant.  He was very thorough with his explanations and even put it in terms that we could easily understand.  Well, I understood it so I guess through osmosis, the folks do too.

After her rounds of chemo in Grand Rapids, she will be tested to see how the cancer has reacted to the treatment.  If it has put it into remission enough, we would then start the procedure to harvest her own stem cells to freeze for later “rescue”.  They would want to harvest enough to do two transplants if necessary or if she was a candidate for a clinical trial that would require it.  Before the harvest, she would have her major organs tested; heart, lung function, liver, etc to make sure she would be able to handle the treatment.  She would then be given a drug to get her body to grow more stem cells than normal in order to make sure they could harvest enough. After the harvest, about two weeks, she would then come to U of M to get a “sledgehammer” of chemo which would essentially kill off everything in her blood including the good cells.  This major chemo treatment would not be possible if it weren’t for the “rescue” stem cells that were harvested from her when she was as cancer free as she could be.  The frozen stem cells would be thawed and put back into her body to reproduce and increase her red and white cells.  She would be at U of M for about a month for this process and then depending on what treatment she decides upon or the clinical trial she is recommended for, she could then be in for more chemo and maintenance drugs, another transplant with maintenance drugs afterwards, or just maintenance drugs.

It is all so up in the air right now because she is just starting her chemo series and we are not really sure how her body will react to the chemo.  I am hoping that she does not get so bogged down by the process and how massive it all seems that she doesn’t want to do it.  The benefits seem to far outweigh the risks involved, but then again, I am not the one who is going through this.  I just pray that when the decision is made that it will be the decision that God places on her heart.