Post Stem Cell Transplant No. 3 – Update 5
Hello my healing team,
It’s been a while my friends. I have missed you!! I hope this update finds you well.
You may remember from my last update that I find myself in a state of cancer limbo. In January, I wrote how my Allo Stem Cell Transplant was incomplete with my immune system remaining as 45% mine, and 55% my brother Dan’s. The challenge with this is that with these percentages, my immune system won’t fight cancer. This is a real concern because the cancer is now coming back. It was 0.1% and has recently increased to 0.6%. Not a big increase, but it’s going in the wrong direction and scary all the same. This was further compounded by the news that the percentage of Dan’s cells started slipping. It went to 50% 😳.
What sucks about my cancer is that I rarely get good news about it. My experience is that I go through gruelling treatment, I get a short period of good news that my cancer has been kicked, then it’s all tough news from there as I watch the cancer re-establish itself, growing like mould in a shower that never gets cleaned, or rather, cannot be cleaned. Mentally, it’s a tough gig. To manage, I look to the little wins for some reprieve. RecentIy, I have had a little win.
It seems that Dan’s cells have turned around and are now at 70%. Wooo hooo!! I sit here with my fingers crossed hoping that it will get to 100% and start attacking that wretched mouldy cancer. For the first time in a while, I am excited!! I will have another test in a few weeks time to hopefully see it continue to rise.
While there is a lot of effort behind the scenes, hope is what I hang onto. I hope my immune system becomes 100% Dan’s. I hope this new immune system attacks the cancer. I hope that my cancer goes into long term remission. I hope that a cure is found for myeloma (and all cancers). ‘Hope’ better pull up its socks and step up soon!!
Take care
Geoff
