Here We Go!

And so we begin.

I initially thought the "beginning" was yesterday, but it turns out that while I was officially admitted to the hospital, I just received a test dose of one of the chemo drugs. I was given a small amount of the drug and then had blood drawn/tested throughout the day and evening to see how my body metabolized it. From this, they'll calculate what my real dosage should be for the big-bang treatment that starts tomorrow.

I've felt really good this past month, with no major problems and yesterday was the first time I've been back in Unit 57 for six weeks! It was a bit strange as all the nurses and support staff greeted me with smiles and friendly banter. Even the lunch lady did a double-take when she passed my room, poked her head in and said "you're back!" On the one hand it's comforting to be "where everybody knows your name", but kinda depressing when the place is a hospital.

The patients do get spoiled at the Tom Baker - as you all know from my experience in the cardiology ward, not all units give such good care. I asked my nurse yesterday if she was having a busy day and she said no, she only had 3 patients assigned! She proceeded to explain that they may have gone easy on her because I needed my blood drawn regularly and at very specific and exact times, and another one of her patients was being administered chemo which is quite procedural. At any rate, a 3-1 nurse to patient ratio is pretty amazing.

For now, I get to go home in the evenings - hopefully for the rest of this week and the weekend. The British Open starts tomorrow and I can't get the Golf Channel in the hospital! They tell me that I'll start to feel the effects in about a week, and again the mouth sores are usually one of the main problems. I was instructed to put on as much weight as possible before the transplant on July 20th, because there will likely be a period of time where I can't or don't want to eat. I happily complied and have put on almost 20 lbs from when I was the lightest (94 to 112 lbs). Even the dietitian said that since it's a short-term thing, it didn't matter how I got the calories - just eat eat eat! Everything was fair game - pizza, KFC, cupcakes... yes, yes and YES! I did try to balance things out and had lots of fruits and vegetables too.

As mentioned in my previous post, I had a barrage of tests to do in preparation and my doctor told me yesterday that they all turned out really well. The CT scan showed my lymph nodes are the smallest they've been (since she started monitoring them) and my bone marrow biopsy showed ZERO contamination. Looks like the GDP chemo did a really good job of getting things under control. The dentist also gave me a big thumbs up, which strengthens my argument with Wayne that yes, he really SHOULD brush his teeth twice a day :)

Things are also well under way for the immuno-therapy treatment in Houston after the transplant. It turns out that this treatment is still in a trial phase so it's free! As far as I know, and my doctor agrees, there isn't a lot of risk associated with it so I'm not too worried that it's still in trials. Ray (or rather his blood) passed all the required tests so both his blood and mine have been sent to them. They'll do whatever magic they do and then I hope to go down there around end of October to be infused with the modified T-cells they've grown/manufactured. Kind of weird, yah.

So I'm feeling a bit anxious, scared and excited all at the same time. I'll try to keep you all updated on how things are going. My hair has grown back quite a bit in the last 6-8 weeks so it will be a bit of a downer to see it all fall out again (if it does). Right now I look like a baby monkey - and Wayne likes to rub my head and say "Awwww!". I'll need lots of encouragement in the next month so please keep in touch!