Tomorrow is the official, official first day of Bone Marrow Transplant. We had to push it one day due to testing positive for rhinovirus last week, but the BMT team feels that we can move forward tomorrow based on my symptoms. Thus, tomorrow I will receive conditioning chemotherapy prior to receiving my stems cells back next week. I have never been so excited and scared at the same time. 

The chemo I will be receiving, called BEAM, contains 4 different chemo agents that will be given over 7 days. The high intensity of the chemo therapy kills the cancer cells but also kills all the other blood producing cells in the body.  Therefore your body is unable to make red and white blood cells or platelets.  This can be life threatening because your body has zero ability to fight off any infections, even the most minor one. For example, I must use an antimicrobial soap daily and I can’t even cut my finger nails due to risk of infection. Jokes on them… I tear my nails — just kidding.. kinda. 

During chemotherapy days it’s a countdown. We start at Day -7. Each day that I receive chemo this week, we will go down. So -7, -6,-5 and so on until we reach Day 0 and the we start counting up. Day 0 is the BIG day, as that is termed “re-birthday” and I will receive my stem cells back. This is the day that I will celebrate every year and it’s a HUGE deal. You better believe that I will be celebrating 2 birthdays every year, almost exactly one month apart. 

After I receive my stem cells back, we wait for engraftment. Engraftment is when the stem cells begin growing and making new white blood cells, red cells and platelets. This usually occurs between day 14-28 days after transplant. Once engraftment occurs, the patient usually slowly starts to feel better and their numbers start to rise. As time progresses, my immune system will begin to grow. It’s important to remember, my immune system will be weaker than a newborn baby, thus it will take time. Ironically, Kanan and I will both be receiving newborn immunizations within months of each other. Like mother, like son? 

After tomorrow, the side effects can begin at anytime. We have tried to mentally prepare for as much as possible, but we honestly don’t know how I will respond and what side effects I may experience. What we do know is that we will continue to take each day, one day at a time and will try to cherish the good moments during the ride.