It's Official!

The good news is in - my bone marrow transplant date is officially set - it's May 26th as planned. Dr. Carraway called to let me know the fantastic news. Seems the chemo (Gleevec and the spinal injections) have done their job well. The Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia has vanished from my bone marrow and only the Chronic Myeloid Leukemia remains. I never dreamed it would be this effective. This is the perfect time for a bone marrow transplant - all things are in my favor right here, right now. I can't let the cancer win it's daily battle against all the good work the chemo has done for me.

My numbers are even better today than yesterday and I am feeling fine. I went to clinic this morning for IV caffeine and fluids in order to ward off any lingering effects from my Lumbar Puncture yesterday. I was released from the IPOP clinic and will now report to Outpatient Services starting on May 5th to have weekly blood draws and to begin my pre-transplant testing. On May 5th and 6th I will have a heart scan, history and physical exam, diagnostic lab studies (blood work), CT scans of the abdomen, pelvis, and sinus, chest X-ray, pulmonary function studies, and an EKG. I also have to attend a bone marrow education class, sign consent forms and meet with my transplant doctor as well as Dr. Carraway. Brad's pre-transplant regiment is on May 7th and 8th. He has to donate a unit of blood (just in case he needs it later), get an EKG, take a physical and history exam, get diagnostic lab studies, sign consent forms and have a bone marrow biopsy (I think they'll give him conscious sedation). He'll need to rest afterwards, but is free to return to Florida when he wants to with the promise, of course, that he'll return to Baltimore on May 24th for more blood work, to meet with the Bone Marrow Case Worker and to meet with the bone marrow harvester before the actual transplant. On the morning of May 26th Brad will have his marrow harvested (1 pint to 2 quarts). It will go through a cleansing process and by the afternoon it will be infused into my Hickman catheter. The next day he'll return for a post-op check-up. Me, well I'll just be hanging out in my room for 3-4 weeks waiting for Brad's marrow to find it's way to the empty spaces in my bone marrow that the intense chemotherapy destroyed. Day after day it will begin to make healthy red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets - my new immune system. I can see it in my mind's eye, can't you?

I am so relieved and excited about the finalization of the May 26th date. It is so important that we move on this quickly. I want so desperately to get through this ordeal unscathed and move on to the new life that awaits me. I feel you all with me.