We Have a NEW Green Light for my Stem Cell Transplant

My medical team has worked their magic and booked me the earliest new date available for my stem cell transplant. The countdown is on as I have less than a week before I start a month or more of daily hospital visits. I will be completing the procedure as an outpatient, or at least that is the hope. Being an outpatient for an autologous stem cell transplant seems to be the standard procedure for where I live.

Next Tuesday, 21 of February, I head to hospital to have my PICC inserted. A peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC), is a long, thin tube that's inserted through a vein in my arm and passed through to the larger veins near my heart. This will give the doctors access to the larger veins near my heart and I will avoid being jabbed daily for the necessary bloodwork and IV medication. The following day I head for the first of six consecutive days of chemotherapy.

BEAM is the chemotherapy regimen that seems to be the global norm prior to having an autologous stem cell transplant. I have done well with the previous chemotherapy regimen, but it has always been only a single day. So, I will confess, I’m pretty nervous about what I’ll look like after 6 days in a row. With previous chemotherapies I was given a wonderful cocktail of anti-nausea medication. Unfortunately, one of my favourite anti-nausea medicines has listed contraindications with BEAM, so it will be unavailable to me. When I met the pharmacist on February 2nd, I warned him that I do not tolerate chemotherapy well and often required additional anti-nausea medications. He assured me he would have a back-up medication for the emergency back-up medication. LOL!

After six days of chemotherapy, I will get my stem cells back. 5.26 million of them were collected in late January. February 28th will be my official new birthday as my body begins the process of restarting itself with the harvested stem cells. Following the 28th is the hardest part of this journey. I can hear you all asking how can it possibly be harder than 6 days of chemotherapy. The reignition of my immune system takes somewhere between 10-20 days after getting my stem cells back. At this time, any blood cells in my body will be in their natural cycle of dying and my bone marrow will not have started to remake its own cells. Engraftment of the stem cells into the bone marrow usually takes place between 10- and 20-days post reinsertion. Engraftment is when my body will begin making its own white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. Once this takes place, my fingers are crossed that I’ll be on the upswing and am hopeful that each day will be better and better.

At the moment, my biggest job is organizing all the materials I will need in the apartment I’m staying in. To keep me safe, my doctors and my family agreed that the best option is for me to move out until my immune system perks back up. With previous chemotherapy treatments, although my immunity to infection was low, I always had some left. With a stem cell transplant I will have zero immunity. Not only will I have zero white blood cells to fight infection, but my body will have no previously built resistance from past infections or vaccines. In six months, I will need to get the vaccines we give to babies. Having a stem cell transplant is like starting over with brand new blood; once my blood work numbers return to normal, I will have the immune system of a baby. Moving out into an isolated apartment is my best shot at staying safe until my blood work numbers recover. I will miss my husband and two boys immensely.

I have to sign off as I have a ton of organizing to do between now and next Tuesday. Please send all the strength, love, energy, and courage you can to help us get through this next fight. I am in the battle for my life and I am going to win. My current slogan continues to be, “WE got this!” I believe it takes a village to raise a child and it will take a village to battle my cancer. Thank you for being part of my village.