Back in July, Hayley wrote about next steps - she said -
"The next few weeks will see Mum, Dad, Tony and possibly some other oncologists
for further opinion to decide if a stem cell transplant will be completed. The
transplant involves one more batch of chemotherapy to completely wipe the immune
system, before injecting the previously harvested stem cells, to trick the bone
marrow into forgetting the disease. The process takes around three weeks, of
which most will be spent in hospital, due to the risk that comes with having no
white blood cells! For now, no decision has been made, but much research and
medical advice will determine what the next step will involve."
Well that period of time led to some tooing & froing between, home, the hospital, the internet and other resources in order to make a decision. In between times I even found some time to go to work!! (Work have been brilliant throughout all of this illness ).
Well the upshot was that we decided to proceed with the stem cell transplant. Our view was that whilst the disease is down, give it another good kicking!! plus I've fared relatively well throughout the prior 8 rounds, so hit it whilst I am capable!! Our readings also indicated that transplant now, may prolong remission. Of course however there is a risk to the transplant which must be considered!!
So the process is (started July 30th)
Week 1 - Into hospital on Tuesday, received chemo on every day that week from Wednesday.
Week 2 - A nasty nasty line was put into my neck (vascath), plus a big chemotherapy day on Monday. Then I received the previously harvested stem cells (see Feb.) on the Tuesday.
Rest of week 2 cells to drop to zero. Alan feels generally sickly but fares relatively well.
Cells are currently down at zero (August 12th) & will be down for around another 8 days - HIGH infection risk. I have to watch any potential infection sites, like a small spot on my leg or any skin break.
Week 3 & 4 time to wait for cells to recover. Maintaining my platelet and red cell levels.
As soon as cells hit required level, I can go home to fully recover.
So that's where we, Team Mellon, are today. Thanks for reading the blog again, take care and have fun.
Alan
Hope all is going well mate, we look forward to the next blog update.
ReplyDeleteHi Alan -
ReplyDeleteYou probably don't remember me, but I knew your family when you lived in the UK and your sister Pat and I were bridesmaids at my sister Beryl's wedding. Beryle told me about your blog and I've been reading of your journey with particular interest because I too was diagnosed with Mantle Cell Lymphoma (we are such a rarity!) in April and I finished my final round of R-Maxi-CHOP chemo in August. I'm now waiting for my stem cell transplant, although I'm having an allogeneic one, which I think will give me a rougher ride than an auto one but can apparently also offer the hope of a cure. I'm so glad you've come through it all well and I wish you a long remission - hopefully a permanent one, though I'm sure you know MCL has a nasty habit of coming back. I'm a member of a closed Facebook group called Our MCL Family, but you need to be invited to join by an existing member. It's been useful to me and maybe your experiences may be of use to other members. If you want to join you can friend me on FB (Jacqueline Pullen) and I'll add you. or maybe you just want to put the whole MCL thing behind you and start afresh...
Best wishes
Jacqueline