The therapy is working very much as expected. The test results have been showing consistent reduction in the number of cancerous blood plasma cells. Both oncologists want me to go ahead with an autologous blood cell transplant. That is what we will be doing. Here is a quick overview of the process:
Chemotherapy – This week at Robert Wood Johnson (RWJ) Hospital
Create a ‘trampoline’ effect to stress my system and then have it bounce back and overproduce the blood stem cells we need for a self-transplantation. The complication is that this stress will knock out my body's ability to fight infection.
Regenerate – From Saturday to the 23rd of January at home
Use special drugs to accelerate my body's production of new blood stem cells, then 'harvest' those cells and freeze them for use in the third stage. The added benefit of the regeneration process is that the re-growth of my blood stem cells – the core of my immune system – will help protect me as we get ready for the final stage.
Transplant – the 9th of February at the Hackensack University Medical Center (HUMC)
One day of chemotherapy using one of the most well known drugs in the business. It will wipe out my bone marrow and all the cancer. Kill them all. At least we hope that is what it does.
Then return the harvested cells from the freezer and run them through the intravenous lines and into my body. They will warm up and migrate back to the bone marrow and start multiplying and living inside my body just like they did before. The idea is that the mistake the plasma cells made when they became cancerous will not recur. In other words; bring in fresh raw material and let them grow from scratch. The cancer should not reappear.
Right now I am at RWJ for the first chemotherapy. I checked in this morning. This hospital is just 5 minutes from home. Once the pharmacy brings up my cocktail it will take 96 continuous hours to get the chemotherapy done. Friday night, if I am doing well enough, I will go home.
During the week, there will be some more time and I will do what I can to make this blog a bit more informative & maybe even more interesting.
Until then… I wish you all the best.
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