The Third Time’s the Charm

I woke up at dawn today, too cold to go back to sleep and too cold to hop out of bed to close the windows. What has happened to this summer that never really got started and seems to be coming to an end already?  Did I blink and miss it?

I huddled there under a thin blanket thinking about writing for the blog and wondering how I would approach it.  How do you break the news that leukemia has come back for the third time?  Roger and I spent the last two days on the phone and email relaying the news to friends and family and trying to let the truth sink in for ourselves.

Some leukemia cells survived the pre-transplant chemo and those little buggers are trying to stage a coup.  The possibility of this happening was mentioned to us before the transplant, but at that time a lot of things were mentioned.  We chose to focus on the positive possible outcomes and didn’t think about the negative ones.  Fortunately, Roger’s medical team thought about it and they have a contingency plan. 

Tomorrow Roger will start chemo as a first strike, and he will be weaned off immune-suppressant drugs over the next two weeks.   This will give his donated T-cells a fighting chance to deliver a second strike and wipe out the leukemia cells once and for all. 

There are some drawbacks, of course.  Roger will almost certainly develop graft vs host disease without the immune-suppressants, and he'll be susceptible to infections.  He'll have to live the hermit's life again to protect himself.  And if he can’t kick the leukemia this way, we will go back to Salt Lake City in about a month for a very specific "mini-transplant" of neutrophils -- the white blood cells that fight infections.  

We’ve let the blog lapse over the last few weeks as life has gotten dull.  Sorry to liven things up this way.  We will start posting regularly again to keep you informed.

I did decide finally to get out of bed to write this down and get it posted.  The room eventually warmed as the sun rose higher.  The dog begged to be walked, there was coffee to be made, and breakfast.  We dressed ourselves in our garden gear and planted three quaking aspen saplings in our front yard (photo at right).  They are graceful little living things.  It's not just bad things that happen in threes.  Good things happen too.  Roger has beaten this twice before.  And we know, as Taylor says, “The third time’s the charm.”