Monday, May 13, 2013

My Transplant: Bone Marrow Drano

After six months of intensive chemo, I thought I was prepared for whatever the transplant preparatory treatment would do to me. When I asked my doctor the difference between the chemotherapy I had been getting and the chemotherapy I'd be getting for my transplant, she basically told me this: 

Before they were using just enough chemotherapy to keep my cancer at bay but not too much that it would kill me. For the transplant they would be using enough chemotherapy to kill the last bits of cancer in me, but also enough to kill every last bit of ME as well.

(Check out this post for more on TBI, total body irradiation.)

The only way a transplant would be successful was to clean me out to make room for my sister. I dubbed this process Bone Marrow Drano, and imagined it would look something like this:









   Check out Day 0!

2 comments:

  1. can i choose hilarious AND cancer sucks???

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  2. Congratulations on your remission and the struggle you endured to reach this milestone. I just discovered your page and find it pretty awesome. I'm an AML survivor and not even a year out from an allo transplant. You combine such a wealth of information and humor, which we so need at this stage. I'm going to pass your page along. Please keep sharing with us!

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