Nick's Birthday, Chemo and July

This past Wednesday Nick turned 15, which is really interesting since I'm only 21 :-) Happy Belated Birthday Nick!!

Cris finished his last round of chemo before the transplant. This time the chemo didn't hit him so hard which is a huge relief because last time he was sick for a week after chemo. This week coming up is going to be relatively calm, we only have to go in 2-3 times this week for CBC's (blood counts). The following week is when it's going to start getting hectic.  Because the last chemo had to be delayed, they also have to delay the stem cell harvesting by one day. He's doing the harvesting on the 6th, 7th and possibly 8th of July and he isn't being admitted!! They are going to use the temp line he uses for chemo so that he won't have to have another surgery to install a collection line in his groin.The week of the 11th he has about 3 appointments every single day for various exams and procedures (EKG, Dental, scans, Echo,etc). The week of the 18th he is being admitted. Radiation starts the 19th (3x daily from the 19th-22nd). On the 23rd-24th he has high dose chemo. On the 25th-26th he has a different high dose chemo. He gets a break on the 27th and the transplant is on the 28th.  The transplant doctor explained that the transplant itself was an injection given through the temp line (which he uses for chemo). I was a little shocked to hear that, I thought it would be a surgical procedure. The good news is that Cris is able to use his own bone marrow since it didn't have any malignant cell involvement. This will make it less likely for his body to reject the transplant. Just in case he can't use his own bone marrow, we found out that Nicholas is an EXACT 10 point match!!  Dr. Trippett said that usually siblings will only match the first 6 points, and rarely match the last 4 points. She said that it is pretty rare to find a perfect match by a sibling.  We were worried because only 40% of patients needing a transplant find a suitable donor. The odds are worse for ethnic minorities. Now we have a plan B!!

On Friday I was able to check out the Ronald McDonald House where I'll be showering and doing laundry while Cris is in the hospital. I'll be able to stay in the hospital with him; he is going to have a private room with a fold-out bed for me, but I'll have to be in scrubs/mask/gloves/hair net while I am in the room with him and I can't use his shower/bathroom. He won't really be able to have visitors for several weeks while his immune system recovers.