The Adventure Awaits!

As of today Martha has a transplant schedule, what a relief to have a date set. Martha is having what is called an Autologous Stem Cell Transplant. That means Martha's stem cells from her blood will be extracted through a process like donating blood and will be frozen and stored until she is treated for the transplant. Since Martha has accomplished a healthy, successful remission, this method is preferable to having a bone marrow donor because Graft/Versus Host Disease is a serious danger for every transplant patient. We travel to Memphis on Sunday, March 12th to begin preparations for her stem cell harvest at Saint Jude Children's Research Hospital. Preparations include one surgery to remove her implanted port and replace it with a Hickman Catheter, which is two IV-type tubes that will protrude from her chest. This new way of accessing her veins is necessary to prevent infections and to facilitate running more than one type of fluid at the same time, such as chemo and liquid nutrition. Martha will also be receiving a drug called Filgrastim (G-CSF) that forces stem cells to grow profusely and travel into her blood stream much more abundantly than normal. After she has several days of this drug she will be hooked-up to an apherisis machine. The machine will remove her blood, process the stem cells out for collection, and return the remainder of the blood back to her system. If all goes well and them stem cells are floating out like promised, she should be able to complete this harvest during one or two, 3-5 hour sessions. Several baseline tests will be conducted also: Echocardiogram, Lung/Chest X-ray, Ophthalmology, Brain/Head CT Scans, her favorite the pregnancy test, lots of blood work and who knows what else. These activities all occur OUTPATIENT with hopefully little discomfort for Martha, which will leave time for some sightseeing in Memphis. Graceland here we come! We'll let you know soon how the packing, planning and excitement of moving for 60 days is going. Best Marbles and Marvels to you all!