So last time I wrote I mentioned that everything seemed to be moving along. That is very true! In fact this week I will travel to Seattle for my first actual pre-transplant visit. Thursday it all begins with a MRI. Next week I will then travel back for an appointment with the study Neurologist and the (dreaded) lumbar puncture. The week after that (I check in August 4th) is when I will have daily appointments to test practically every part of me to make sure that this is still a good idea. Basically, it is necessary to make sure there is not some underlying issue that would prove problematic with the transplant.

So....for those of you who are reading this and thinking, wait?! What? I understand. I know I have not been on my blog for a while and I have not been the best about keeping it updated. I have no excuses really, only that after making the decision to go through with this study I decided that I would take advantage of the time I have and make the most out of it. It's silly really, since I should have been living my life to its fullest before this came up, and I think when it comes to family I have been pretty good about that. BUT, I decided there were a lot of things I wanted to do (fun things) that I have just been putting off. And, of course it's not like I could just go out and do everything on my bucket list in a couple of months, but I figured I sure could go do a couple of them! So for the last couple of months I have been out having as much fun as I can with my son, my family, my friends....and yes, even pushing myself to cross off a couple bucket list items....and it's been wonderful!
Okay...back to the real reason I am posting. Transplant news. About 3 weeks ago I got a call that they were ready to schedule me to come over for all of my pre-transplant testing. They wanted to do it in July but I just was not ready. They felt based on my situation there was not going to be any problems with the insurance approval and instead of waiting for the approval and then scheduling they would get things set up in advance. So after looking at schedules and learning more of what would be done, my date was set. August 4th I check in to the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance at 9 am. I will then have blood work done (they test for pretty much everything I think....make sure all systems are a go) and then I will meet with the transplant nurse to get my schedule of appointments which are to take place over about 2 weeks. From what I have been told I will not only have blood work but a bone marrow biopsy, pulmonary function tests, echo cardiogram, EKG, MRI's (2 over a 3 week period) and a spinal tap (MRI & LP are to be done before 8/4). Once all of this is done, I will have an appointment with the transplant docs (somewhere around the 19th of August is our best guess at this point) where they will then go over all of my results and determine if the transplant is a yay or a nay.

Assuming all this goes well (which at this point, with all the tests I have been through, we would all be shocked if there were something to come up we did not know about) then they will schedule me to have a Hickman cath placed and from there they harvest the stem cells. I will then have a week or so of just hanging with the family and waiting. From what I have been told, the stem cells have to sit for about 15 days to make sure they are viable and disease free. Once that time has passed I will then be admitted to the UW Hospital where I will undergo 6 days of high dose chemotherapy to basically kill off my current immune system. From what I have been told, my blood cells will basically be undetectable. Once that happens they will then hang a bag of my own stem cells and transfuse them back into me. From here it can take anywhere from 10-21 days to have normal blood counts. On average it is 10-14 days but there have some whose body needed 21 days. Once my blood counts are in normal range I will be discharged. After discharge I will stay in the area for a time. I will have daily blood draws, doctors appointments, and be on an IV. The whole process can take a few months and I have already gotten permission to take my laptop to the hospital, so I plan to make updates and document this as thoroughly as possible.For now, I am going to have as much fun and time with my family as possible. As much as I feel positive about this, there is a risk involved and I don't want to make light of that. Also, even being successful....I will pretty much be quarantined (with the exception of doctor's appointments) and well that is just no fun. I'll tell you what though...I really look forward to in a year or two having this brand new immune system...free of many of my health problems, free of a life of relapse after relapse. Now wouldn't that be nice? I know this is experimental, and no one really knows how well it will work, if it will work for a specific person, if it work's if it will last, but I feel that if I get even a part of my life back, that would be wonderful. And, maybe, just maybe, this will be the beginning of the end of MS! :)