Time to Beat Cancer

  This week has been... a very strange week. I had the stem cell transplant on the 6th, on Wednesday. I was still having pre-transplant chemo until the 4th and then just pre-transplant supportive therapy on the 5th. But in the midst of all that I began experiencing quite unusual side affects, to a fairly extreme nature; hallucinations.  On Saturday October 2nd I was on the Busulphan chemo and started the Campath chemo. Campath is quite strong and I had side affects fairly quickly, thankfully not too severe though. I was passing out and had abdominal pain. As a result I don't remember much of the evening. The pain of cancer or the pain of being a Charlton fan? My reactions seemed to continue into Sunday morning, but were becoming more mild. I woke with some temperature spikes which needed to be treated with paracetemol IVs, loads of drugs and a magnesium IV. After all these I continued with the Busulphan and Campath chemo and was for the most part pretty OK as far as I remember...

  It has been a while since my last post as I was stuck a bit in no-man's land from the news of the donor whom had cancelled. The cancellation caused a delay of several weeks, and while I do have the 3rd donor, that person needs to get ready and be booked in. It also wasn't certain if I would be able to receive the new donor as the delays could mean I've left remission and would need to have further rounds of chemo before the transplant chemo and transplant. On Tuesday 14th September I had my 9th (I think) bone marrow biopsy. It wasn't the best one I'd had, it proved difficult to get through my bone to take a marrow sample. The first attempt had landed in an empty pocket meaning a second attempt was needed. This struggled to get through the bone and I could feel the needle sliding off each time. The marrow sample that was taken was quite thick and slow, but the doctors performing the procedure said this isn't a problem and that sometimes it's just like that....