Transplant Updates - August 28th to September 10th

 This will be just a short post. As anyone following my story knows, I was expecting to have my bone marrow transplant this week as well as the pre-transplant chemo. My first 10/10 donor had proven unable to be contacted so we had been on the 2nd 10/10 donor; a Polish woman on the German registry.

At the end of my last post, on Thursday August 26th, it was confirmed that the Anthony Nolan charity had requested that I start the Chemotherapy after the donor had donated, and that their donation would be frozen while I had the chemotherapy. Apparently this has happened more often due to COVID, as obviously it would be bad if I went through the pre-transplant chemo and then COVID prevented the donation from happening.


On Monday September 6th the day before the individual was supposed to donate, as I was getting my stuff ready to be admitted into hospital, I was called up by one of the transplant doctors. The donor had decided to pull out. Obviously this was really disappointing news.


But it's not all bad news, I do have another 10/10 donor lined up. A young Polish woman also on the German register, 3rd time is the charm. No pressure where ever you are, if you're reading this donor haha. At the moment it is scheduled that she will be donating around the 5th of October and that I will be admitted into hospital to start the pre-transplant chemo at the end of this month. The doctors have confirmed that she's a really strong candidate and are confident it will go ahead  and as such it will be a fresh donation with no need of freezing.


There's always a "but" though. Because of the donor who cancelled, it has cost me several weeks. As such there is the risk that I can't go straight into the transplant and the pre-transplant chemotherapy. As a result I'm going to be having another bone marrow biopsy (my 9th one I think woohoo!) this coming Tuesday. The results of this, which will probably come through the following week, will determine if I need an additional round of chemo first. Fingers crossed I don't, because if I do the transplant will be delayed by at least another 6 weeks while I have more chemo then recover from it, before I could then have the pre-transplant chemo and transplant.


Finally as always, I want to thank everyone for their support it really has helped. All links for support are here https://linktr.ee/AdamRiley? 

I have shifted all blogs over to www.theadamriley.com but will try to still update here on blogger too.

Kay and John were able to raise over £700 for Anthony Nolan during their Tough Mudder run at the end of August!

Well earned pints for the boys!

Action shot

Top lads

The amazing people that are Nic and Lanna have also been donating blood. Nic has hit 50 plasma donations in the last three  years.


What a guy!

Wooo Lanna!



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cancer Diagnosis and Admission - End of April to May 12th

Image
 It feels strange writing this, almost exactly 6 years after starting my last hospital blog (adaminhospital.blogspot.com). Something I had hoped I would never have to do again.  I had, as people who know me, or read my blog from years back know, Severe Aplastic Anaemia back in 2015. And since October of that year, I've been pretty good. I had my life back, playing sport, gym and enjoying a good career. COVID put a big spanner in that, as it did for everyone, and I spent 2020 shielding mainly back home at my parents. Due to the nature of Aplastic Anaemia, I'm not supposed to have flu jabs and travel jabs, but the risk of COVID is so great that it was decided that I should take the vaccines as the positives outweighed the risks. A couple of weeks after my second jab I was scheduled in for my 4monthly blood test. The results unfortunately weren't great, and I began getting prescribed a lot more tablets, as it was believed I may have relapsed into Aplastic Anaemia. One of the s...
Read more

Two Very Different Weeks of Side Affects - May 29th to June 11th

Image
 May 29th to June 4th This week, much like the other week's post was very uneventful for me, which is great. I was still having the chemo injections which I have become used to, and I'm still getting them every day around 6pm. The only day since the 27th of May that I haven't had it was the 30th May. I write this on June 11th having just received it in my stomach.  On Sunday 30th I began noticing my hair coming out, I'm already shaven (bald) headed, so hasn't impacted me too much. But my beard and some parts of my body have just lost all their hair. And each day since the 30th I've begun looking more and more like Gollum, especially as my weight continues to drop off me. Gollum looking more ripped than me nowadays. By the 31st May the rash on my legs were definitely improving as well and beginning to fade. Finally I could strut around the hospital room with my thighs out with pride. So far my side affects from the chemo had been going well. I had been told this ...
Read more

Pre 3rd round of Chemo and Transplant - August 7 to 27th

Image
This is the last post, before the big stuff. For those who have been reading and following my story you'll know that the first choice transplant match seemingly disappeared off the map, so we're using number 2. I mistakenly stated it was a German man, the individual is actually a Polish woman on the German registry. She is a 10/10 match just like the German man was but unlike him is actually the same blood group as me as well, which is good, in which case I'm not 100% sure why she wasn't the first choice donor originally. I'd imagine that it's due to male donors being generally preferred, the science goes over my head but this is apparently related to the size of the donor, with men generally being bigger, as well as whether the female donor has ever been pregnant as this has a big impact on their ability to be a bone marrow stem cells donor. Apologies if you are a Biology expert with your head in your hands reading my poor explanation (Sorry Mrs Matkins!) . Thi...
Read more