Kathy and I will head down to the Medical Center next Sunday, November 19. We will stay overnight at the Med Center Marriott since I have an early morning appointment at the Transplant Center at Methodist Hospital to begin the Stem Cell Transplant Process on the 20th. 

Kathy and I met with my doctor team last Monday, November 6, for final labs and to sign my life away with all the paperwork required for the transplant. Today, we teleconferenced with the pharmacist at the Transplant Center to get all my meds in place. On Friday, my hair will be shorn as I will lose it anyway. That way I will not have to deal with it falling out when I am sick during the transplant process.  

Here is a brief outline of what I can expect to experience: 

Day -2 (Monday): Surgery to remove my current implanted port (not large enough for the many different medications to which I will be connected). Surgery to put in a new external port. Short break to test new port during which time I will begin eating ice to ward off, as best as possible, ulcers that develop in the mouth and esophagus as a result of chemo. Then, heavy dose of Melphalan, a potent chemo that will destroy all the stem cells in my body resulting in no immunity by the next morning. 

Day -1 (Tuesday): A rest day. I could be weak and sick. They promise they will stay on top of my body’s reaction with medications. 

Day 1 (Wednesday)- My previously collected stem cells which were as cancer free as possible after my immunomonoclonal targeted therapy over almost seven months will be infused back into my body. My body will not like this. 

Days 2-9: My body will be reacting to the new stem cells and could be doing cart wheels. I will be on various medications as the doctors monitor my body.

Days 10-14: The infused stem cells will replant and begin to reproduce. (It is tremendously rare for the stem cells to not reproduce.) 

Days 15-21: I should be feeling stronger. I will be monitored for the stem cell reproduction rate as the protein levels in my blood will indicate when I can be released from the transplant center. 

Kathy will stay with me in the hospital. The rooms in the transplant center are  large and quite nice. The entire floor of the transplant center is an isolation ward, not just my room, so as I feel better and stronger I can walk the area. I asked for a gosling down pillow for my bed and a meal of King Crab, and the doctors just laughed with me. Turns out I really am being incarcerated for at least three weeks. 

As Kathy and I are together in the hospital room, we recognize it’s not just the two of us, but the Lord will be with us to bless us, not only through His guiding of medical wonders, but also in His Word and promise. May God make us a blessing to all who gather around us in this time.

“Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think—according to the power at work within us—to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen! (Ephesians 3:20-21)”

Prayer Request: Smooth processes. Limited side effects from the transplant process. Blessings on my doctors and staff who attend to me. A spirit of thanksgiving in my heart, no matter the outcome.