January | 2011 | Hollyeasley's Blog

This morning was my consultation with Dr. Garcia-Manero, my second appointment with him this week. After seeing my transplant team yesterday, Wade and I both felt like Dr. G-M would tell it like it is so that we could understand what we need to do. Since he is considered to be the Number One authority in the world on my disease we totally trust his opinion. Here’s the low-down. I have used up all but about a year of my life expectancy during the last 4 years since I was diagnosed. My risk of getting sick and dying of an infection or transfusion related infection have now overtaken the risks of a stem cell transplant which are graft vs host disease and death. Since I have a relative perfect donor, and my health is pretty good right now, we need to proceed with transplant. Gay and I matched perfectly on all 10 markers. Without a perfect match, Dr. G-M would not recommend us to proceed with the transplant, and would instead try other chemos to try to keep me stable until one could be found. With every imperfection in a donor match the risks with host vs graft disease increase. This is basically rejection disease and can be anything from a minor skin rash to major debilitation resulting from the immune system attacking your major organs. Most people experience some degree of host vs graft, and therefore after you are released from the hospital, you must have daily appointments at the hospital for at least 14 weeks, or 100 days. Usually this is controlled with medications that you are eventually weaned off of. The hospital stay is usually 4 weeks. Not meaning to freak anyone out with this post, but I have probably gone overboard by not talking openly about my condition and it is difficult for some to understand why I suddenly need a stem cell transplant. Well, after we had this appointment, we decided to take the afternoon off and go to the zoo. It was a beautiful day in the 70s, very sunny and still. Very enjoyable! And it was a fun distraction! Then we went to Katy to Kelli’s and the 3 of us went to dinner at Saltgrass. Fun evening!