14 Days and Counting !!!!!!

Hello Everyone,

I hope this post finds you all well and rested after the long holiday weekend. Beautiful weather at the shore and i think here as well. We were there with all the kids and grandbabies. We had a great time. Christian loves the water and sand. He had great playmates with Joey and Michael. Miss Emma was pleasent as can be sitting in her tent and smiling at everyone. They slept well and kept us laughing.
Joe and I headed home early (6AM) b/c we had an appt. at Penn at 8:00am. Well for the first time we were late ! It took us over 2hrs. to get to Philly. We were backed up from the AC expressway to the WW bridge. I knew from that point that this was going to be a horrible, bad no good day!!! We got to the lab around 8:20 and they drew 16 tubes of blood(HONESTLY!!!!). i wasn't paying attention but wheen they went to take my BP i had leaked blood all over my white linen blouse. Then into the treatment room for the BMB. I was still calm at this point but knew things were not going my way. Dr. Porter came in with the bome marrow transplant nurse practitioner (Jackie) and said "Jackie is going to do the bmb today and go over the schedule of chemo with you". I did protest and sais" But Dr. Porter, you know what a tough hinney i have and these sweet LITTLE nurses can't do the bmb as quickly as you do" Well needless to say i lost this argument and had yet another 20 min. torturous biopsy. I actually cried this time and said i was never coming back !!!! Jackie was thrilled because the sample she got was so large. A piece of bone the size of half a toothpick. I don't mean to scare anyone with details but why would anyoneperform this procedure without sedation? I am going to lobby for pts. rights when this is over. I got home after 1pm and had to go to the dentist to have 2 fillings replaced. YIKES !!!!! Drilling both ends in one day. My dentist was so kind and gentle. He knew i was scared to death and he used lots of novacaine and didn't hurt me even a tiny bit.
So anyway, back to Dr. Porter. He went over all the chemo tx. i will receive in prep for the transplant. I am being adm. to Penn on July 19th and will start chemo that day. Three different kinds of chem (Campath, Fludarabine and Busulfan) for 7 days and then i get the stem cells on Friday July 28th. Then i guess the scary part starts. But we are all going to pray that i won't have any scary parts. I will be isolated in my room for 16 to 21 days depending on how quickly my counts return to normal. They anticipate a 5 or 6 week hospital stay.
So this is really coming up a little more quickly then i thought. Dr. Porter put a "rush" on it as he is worried that i will come out of remission b/c of that nasty chromesone. He was very sweet today, even though I am annoyed with him that he didn't do the bmb. He had to review all the risks and side affects of the procedure so I would know what to expect. When he saw my eyes well up he said well thats enough of this and from now on we will only discuss good things. Amen to that !! He feels That I am very strong and will do fine and i feel that way too. There will probably be some rough days ahead but i am Determined to be better by this Christmas. It will take a full year to recover my strength and know how the transplant "grafted", meaning the donor stem cells.
So please keep up the prayers and good thoughts. I know you will and i thank you for that.I know i am being so redundant but you all mean the world to me and i feel like you've all been on this journey with me thru thick and thin. Lots and lots of love. I will keep you posted. I have a 3 hr. class next week to go over the nitty gritty details of the procedure and recovery. Didn't we just do that today? Enjoy the nice weather coming our way. Maybe we can turn off the air for a few days.

Love Debbie