Post Transplant

   Forgive me for not updating sooner, sometimes after chemo treatments it's hard to put words and thoughts together in an organized manner. (We call it Chemo Brain, not lol). January 3rd kicked off my pretreatment for the Stem Cell Transplant. The first step was to replace my pic line in my arm with a trifusion in my chest. In non medical terms a trifusion has 3 lines for the medical staff to access with IV's and they are larger than the previous lines in my arm. It was a little uncormfortable at first but it grows on you. These lines will be in place for approx 4 months and they dangle from your chest and need daily care. (Similar to utters on a cow, nice huh). Anyway, following was the routine admission testing and then we began 5 days of chemo treatments (I was approved for new trial drugs, interesting) and 1 dose of radiation. My body responded very well to the before mentioned but did have some side effects. Mouth and throat sores (very painful) and ooops lost my hair AGAIN. This was followed by a day of rest, no drugs entering my body and before I knew it, the time had come. Jan. 11th, my new birthday!
   Let's say YAY because the transplant turned out to be very uneventful which is a good thing. I received 6,000,000 stem cells from an unrelated donor. Incredible! Can not thank this person enough and the information is kept under lock and key for 1 year. The whole thing took 22 minutes. My vitals of course were being checked constantly throughtout the day and fortunately there were no immediate reactions. Following the infusion I began receiving anti-rejection drugs and a whole regimen of other medications to prevent this and that. These drugs are all pretty harsh and I was lucky, only very minor reactions such as itchy skin in random places and night sweats. Very lucky, could have been much worse.
    I was doing so well they discharged me on Jan. 26th but have to remain in a location close to the hospital for up to 80 days after the transplant. Hoping for a shorter time, very homesick. Currently, I am renting a lovely condo in Denver and my parents are here as my caregivers being I am not allowed to be alone. We head over to the hospital 3 times a week for labs and doctor appointments so it's good to be close especially if I have a reaction. Hubby and the kids come up on the weekends but it's hard not being with them everyday but here is the good news.
    Good news: I had my first post transplant bone marrow biopsy at Day +28 and all is clear. 2 more are scheduled at Day +100 and 1 year. We are doing routine spinal taps with IT Chemo to zap and keep away any cells that might be lingering in my central nervous system being the 2 systems don't communicate. Recovery is going well, energy levels are low which is normal. It's said a patient can feel like this for the first year. So, a little bit each day and one day at a time!
    Be inspired by all the Teams in Training out there trying to raise funds and awareness for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. They are trying to stamp out blood cancers and at least .75cents of every dollar goes to research. Please help, if each person donates $1 or the price of a Starbucks coffee the goals could be met. Attached is a link for the cause in my honor but I'd be thrilled no matter where you donated. Thank you. 
  http://pages.teamintraining.org/nyc/ambbr12/SYBIKER