Tomorrow is the day when Ms. Roninelope (Ronincyberpunk’s and jackelope’s) mama has her bone marrow transplant. Please keep our family in your prayers, thoughts, good mojo. She’s undergoing chemo right now and todays numbers show a significant decline as expected. I’m in Houston with her right now, I flew out yesterday and am here until Friday.
So this is just a general request for good thoughts. If you want to stay updated, we’ve got a blog running on http://www.jarrett.ws/dale/ which we’re keeping updated daily (sometimes more than daily).
The bone marrow is in the hospital and we’re going to begin soon. Mom is not feeling too great, but it could definitely be worse. I’ll check in later after it gets rolling.
Thanks for the kind wishes, all; I wish I could be there for this, but I was down there last week. Plus we’ve got a good-sized brigade of family and friends there, scheduled to stay in shifts over the next 100 days or so.
Spiff, I’m glad to hear you say that about Dr. Champlin. I met him when I was there, and he gave off that “genius aura” as strongly as anyone I’ve ever spoken with.
And Mississippienne is right; Hey kids! It’s mad-kewl 2 B a marrow donor! Join up 2day!
Well the morning has come to what they call “Day +1” being one day after the transplant. Last night was a good night for mom with her eating and feeling good. Today she feels exhausted again, but not sick. The doctor whooshed through, he always seems to move so fast - but I echo my bro jackelope in saying that this dude rings “genius” with every word. The doc was only positive, though he reminded us that she’s about to dip again. It should take three weeks for the bone marrow to take and begin growing new cells. So the next three weeks will be the days to watch.
I’m glad things have gone well so far. One of my closest friends received a bone marrow transplant (for CML, from her brother) nearly 10 years ago. It was a scary time, but she got through it and has been in remission since they first declared it. With all the Doper vibes coming your way, I’m sure things will go just as well for your mom!
I looked into signing up as a bone marrow donor, but I don’t believe I can. I started filling out the online form a few years back, and two of the questions were 1) are you banned from donating blood for any reason (Yes - vCJD risk from living in Europe in the 90s) and 2) do you or a sibling have ankylosing spondylitis? (Yes - my sister). So I stopped there. I’d love to be an organ donor, but I don’t want to put people’s healths even more at risk! I’ve signed my donor card anyways - perhaps if it comes down to something like a heart or liver transplant, it’s an acceptable risk, I don’t know.
