Its a GO!

Last hurrah before lockdown...we made it!

It's been 8 months and its finally here, the transplant is a GO! For those who've followed along, you've seen the up and downs, detours and delays, but you continued to pray for, root for, and support us--know that we could not have done this without your love. 

My family has been incredible through all this, Roy taking valuable time off work to be my emotional and physical support, Naomi who in a very scary situation has become more brave in each and every day, my sister Kathy who has patiently waited unwittingly as time after time transplant was delayed. But here we are now. 

On Friday August 25th I will be admitted to OHSU to begin the preconditioning process in preparation for the transplant. This involves 3 chemotherapy courses of treatment over 3 days followed by whole body radiation on the 4th day. The goal of this is to completely eradicate my existing bone marrow. August 31 which they call Day 0, they will harvest the bone marrow from my sister in the morning and administer it to me in the afternoon. Once the chemo is administered, there is no turning back. The new bone marrow has 3 weeks to engraft or I won't survive. 

During the engraftment period, there will likely be additional risks that I will likely encounter, the biggest and most common being infections and, for me, kidney failure. This 30-day period will be the most critical health wise, hence the need for hospitalization. We are praying that the new bone marrow will take hold and grow, and begin to manufacture the cells needed for my body to begin to stabilize so that I can go home. This is part I of the transplant. 

Part II of the transplant will mostly happen at home with every other day visits to the infusion center, and occasional hospital stays. This period will be approximately another 70 days for a total of 100 days from Day 0. Then I am told 1 year before the new bone marrow can be considered fully functional. It s a long and difficult road to recovery, but one that must be done. 

To be honest, it is overwhelming to think about everything that is about to happen. This is only an abbreviated version of the mountain ahead. But, as someone wisely shared recently, "one step at a time". This is nothing that I am able to conquer (if conquer is even the right word, more likely survive) but step by step He leads me. It has helped to make the mountains not so tall and valleys not so deep.

One last thing to share. 21 years ago on August 30, 2002 God performed a miracle, He gave me a transplanted kidney, one my doctors said I had no hope for. This bone marrow transplant is scheduled for August 31.

A few housekeeping items:

• Our friend Suping will be sending out a GoFundMe fund to help with additional costs of meals, housekeeping, and rides during these few months. I am not allowed meal trains or restaurant food for health safety reasons.
• An Excel spreadsheet will be sent out for help with Naomi pick ups and rides for myself in case of emergencies. We are hoping for people to can commit to being "on-call" certain days of the week as the need arises.
• Prayer team: a list of folks we will contact via email or text for immediate prayer support. We learned last time that these emergencies can arise quickly, often in an untimely manner when every minutes counts.