Transplant 101

This is the big talk. The transplant doctor sat me down and talked me thru the procedure in detail.

This is less a blog, and more a note to self of some of these that got covered and what I can expect.

Side-effects:
- nausea from the preparatory drug, from the melphalan (cancer-killer)
- mouth sores, tracheal sores, all the GI stuff from the melphalan which does not per say recognize cancer-cells, but instead targets rapidly dividing cells which encompasses both the cancer cells and the cells of the GI tract. The nurse told me that in the days prior to amifostine which ameliorates the side effects, people were absolutely miserable from the GI issues.

Admittance: Right now the bedspace is full, but I can expect 24 - 48 hours notice that the procedure will start. The melphalan is out-patient with admittance the day after. I'm not sure why but I asked if I could get the melphalan in-patient. I think that mentally I would prefer to psychologically feel that the cure is underway and being admitted somehow does that.

Possible outcomes:
I live.
I die.
Diesease goes into complete remission for some unknown number of years.
Diesease goes into partial remission. Would need to try the transplant a second time with the possibility that it works.
No change.

It will be three weeks in-patient pending some outstanding result in terms of blood cell replacement.  Speaking of which, the drug neupogen will be administered again. I had bad side-effects from the first dosages: migraines in particular, and overall general hurting. Time to ramp up the vicodin.