2009 Plan B

Normally at this time of year we'd be heading off on holidays somewhere. This year we were going to go to the Gold Coast for a week or more and then come back to Hawkes Nest for a week, and maybe have a few days at Wyangala before school went back. Never mind, that will just have to be next year!
It seems I have arrived at a sort of cross roads in my treatment. Every time I've had a Bone Marrow Biopsy, the doctors have been unable to aspirate any actual bone marrow to test. This has made it difficult for them to test my marrow, but the last blood test they did, just before Christmas, was not showing any Leukaemia, but was showing a couple of "different" cells. These could be bone marrow trying to get started, or it could be Leukaemia coming back. Either way, the doctors don't want to wait to find out. Because my bone marrow has been rendered all but useless from a combination of the Leakaemia and the first round of Chemo, they now want to move as quickly as possible to Bone Marrow Transplant. The only delay with this is that I still have a fungal infection in my lung, which is being cleaned up with a drug called Voraconizole. On the 13th of January, I will be having another bone marrow biopsy, both from my hip, and from my sternum. I will also be having another lumbar puncture. A few days later, I will have another CT Scan to determine how much the lung infection has reduced. If there is any still there, the doctor wants to remove it surgically, so they can take me to transplant sooner.
As far as transplant goes, I have some good things going for me. I am in pretty good shape already and I have a matched for tissue type sibling as a donor. The only limiting factor now is the infection.
For the BMT, I will have a big chemo therapy. It will make me very sick, but it is supposed to clean up any residual leukaemia so that my new donated marrow can start work with a clean slate. Once I start the tranplant, I have to be in isolation with only the Doctors, Nurses, Mum, Dad and siblings visiting. If any of them have even so much as a sniffle, they can't visit. This isolation will go for about 8 weeks, but could be as long as 18 weeks. Then, when I get out of hospital, I'll have to stay at Ronald McDonald House for another couple of months until I'm off the daily visits. Once I go to weekly visits, then I should be able to come home to Forbes and just come back to Westmead once a week.
On Wednesday the 15th January, I had a really busy day. My neighbours from home and good friends the Bennetts came to visit, and my good friends the Sweeneys also came to visit. They brought Nanna and Fafa with them. While they were here, Sprocket, Daniel and Josh all lined up for a haircut. This new style of mine must really be catching on, everyone seems to want one. Sprocket even let me shave off his moe. Spocket has not been seen without his moe for 27 years. Even Kathy said she can't remember him not having a moe. Good on ya Sprocko!!!!
Also on Wednesday, we had an appointment with the head of the transplant team, Dr Peter Shaw. He's getting me ready for transplant in the next few weeks. Since I'm going to be in isolation for such a long time, we asked him if I could go home for a few days? He said yes! So, all going well, I hope to have a few days at home in the next week or so.