I went to a doctors appointment today. They had to do another health workup for my next transpant. So we had to do blood tests (15 vials! for someone who isn't making blood, that's a lot!) We did an echo cardiogram, and a pulminary function test. Then we met with our doctor. I'm glad it was my doctor this time and not just the doctor on call. The doctor on call is the one who told me my leukemia was back and he said it like he was giving a weather report of thundershowers. My doctor is actually quit nice and has a sense of humor. I asked him how it was possible that after reciving so much chemo that it almost killed me, THEN wiping out my bone marrow and doing total body radiation, how did the leukemia come back so quickly? He said that Leukemia is the most aggresive, elusive, and resistant cancer there is. Especially AML. Not to mention I am in the high risk category. When I do things I sure do them all the way! So he quite frankly wasn't surprised by it coming back. He said my bone marrow has been sitting there empty for 2 months now so the leukemia had an easy job of moving back in. He believes that if my own bone marrow would have been able to recover, or if I had grafted then my cells would have crowded out the leukemia and probably killed it. Because of that he thinks that me grafting as soon as possible is the most important thing right now. The plan is to give me enough chemo to supress the leukemia so it doesn't interfere with the graft. But he doesn't want to give me too much chemo and damage my organs. He says my body has been through enough and he wants to try to go easy on it. The major change in this transplant is that usually they give you medicine to surpress the graft so that you graft slowly and reduce the risk of graft vs host. But they are not going to give those to me because they just want me to graft so desperately! If I get graft vs host then we will deal with it then. The one thing about graft vs host is that it is a good sign that the new cells are also killing the leukemia. So there is a silver lining.
After the appointment we picked up the boys from aunt Kierstens house. I think they like her house better than ours! They are always asking to sleep over there! Good job aunt Kiersten! Anyways, as we were loading the boys in the car Brayden gets a huge smile on his face and says to me "Mom, is your cancer all gone now?!" I wanted so badly to say YES!! But instead I explained that mommy still needs to get new bone marrow and the new bone marrow will kill the cancer. This poor child has been asking this question for 9 months now! I know that 9 months to a 4 year old is an eternity! I hope he doesn't give up on me.
So, to sum up, the plan is for me to start chemo this friday and get my transplant on the 26th. Most people start to graft on day 14 but my doctor told me not to be surprised if I do by day 8 or 9. I may have to be admitted on Wednesday depending on my labs that morning because my phosphorous and potasium levels were high today wich could be a sign of the cancer cells braking down and releasing these into my blood stream. If the levels go up even more then I have to be admitted to get them flushed out of my system before we begin chemo. So tomorrow I am just going to enjoy my family, then begin gearing up for the battle.
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