March 13th

To continue...
The process of an SCT (stem cell transplant) is complicated and seems to be pretty time consuming with the medical beaurocracy..
We started the testing phase on March 4th..Was in line supposedly since mid Feb, but turns out they had no record of me till I called and asked..bugged my onc doc and pushed some buttons.

The basics of the SCT is as follows... testing, mobilization of the stem cells with either a Nupregen shot and wait a week for it to get the cells out of my marrow and into the bloodstream...
OR 4 days of chemo and then wait 2 to 4 weeks for all the blood numbers to get back to shape and THEN harvest my cells thru a catheter that takes it out of me and into a centrifuge to separate cells and feed the blood minus stem cells back into me.
They want at least 5 million cells per transplant. Hoping for 15 million or so and that may take 2 to 4 days to extract that many. All depends on what went on before..Type of chemo and overall condition of me as a whole I guess. One guy got 67 million in one day and some get only 1 mill or less after 4 days. Some of this is still a bit confusing to me and I hope I am getting it right.
Then after harvest, the cells are frozen...
I am then nuked with Melphalan, which is a baaad nasty chemo that will kill my bone marrow and theoretically all the bad Myeloma cells.
Wait a day for the chemo to dissipate, then re infuse a portion of my saved cells back into me. The rest will be saved for the next transplant down the road..And yes, there will likely be at least one more. It seems from the reading I have done, the "average" length of remission is 2 years or so...Since MM is a genetic disease, my body will still produce the faulty Myeloma cells that don't die off when they are supposed to and will increase in numbers again.
Next after putting the stem cells back is to wait for them to start working again. With no immune system to heal..It takes a week for the cells to start the bone marrow working again. During the next 3 months..I will gradually get back to "normal" as my system gains strength . New white cells will start working and try to ward off any infections.
We will have to be living in Seattle for about 30 days pot transplant (called day Zero).
They want us to be within 20 minutes of the U of W if something happens. Any temperature over 100 means I have an infection and into the hospital I go asap for IV antibiotics.
Testing and plasma when needed every day (sometimes twice a day in the beginning) for a few weeks at the SCCA to monitor the progress. As I gradually get more strength and the numbers get closer to the low normal range, they will let me go home and the daily trips to the clinic will get less frequent and soon, I can get then done at my local Cascade Cancer Center clinic much closer to home. Still will have to go back to the SCCA for specific tests for a while, so it will be a while till there will be anything close to a normal life for us.

Will take a maintenance drug (chemo) such as Revlemid ($8000/month) to keep them from coming back while in "remission". Each drug only works so long and along the way Rev will quit and the next drug or combination will be tried. As long as the numbers stay low, I am good..They will gradually all stop working and by that time we all hope the trials and testing will come up with the new next best one that will knock it down for a while longer. Or better yet, The genetic researchers will figure a way to put back the partially missing chromosome 13 into my DNA. Strange science Mr Wizard...No known cause or permanent cure...Yet..

Now back to the present...

Been tested every day since the 4th..MRI, double hip bone marrow biopsy (not fun), Dental health, several large blood draws, Urine tests, Pulmonary function, Xrays, poking and prodding in general, classes to teach how to take care of me afterwards, food prep for a nutrophenic person (no immune system), house prep..no plants, clean everything, no well water, pet precautions..etc...can't remember all of them as its a blur...
Pretty comprehensive to say the least. Suddenly they give me 6 days off to hurry up and wait some more. And here I am...Feeling pretty good overall..tired and the neuropathy hurts my legs, but all that is probably my new reality from here on.
nuff for now..gonna get some household stuff done while I can..even built a Rabbit tranny yesterday..yee haw...