Mulligan

It appears my bone marrow transplant was a success in so far as I survived the procedure and the donated cells did engraft.  As it turns out, my brother Bob was too close a genetic match so I did not get sufficient graft vs leukemia effect. Go figure. So here we are, virtually right back where we were a year ago.

I am currently undergoing a second round of chemotherapy. The first didn’t take. We’re using a new drug my body hasn’t experienced before. Remission will most likely take at least two rounds of chemo, over the next two to four weeks. If this succeeds in knocking the leukemia back into remission, the next step will be a second transplant. That’s right, a do-over! This time however we will use an unrelated donor (no offense, family). The current donor list from the national bone marrow registry shows 38 potential matches for me. Of course the selection narrows considerably once serious screening begins.

There is much to do and many obstacles to overcome before a second transplant could happen. I know how this sounds: impossible. For several days after getting the news, Candi and I were undeniably depressed. But the human spirit is amazing. We have both regained our footing and are again proceeding on a path very similar to last year. We might find ourselves once again ordering Thanksgiving dinner from the hospital menu.  Now that is something to dread!

We don’t know anything with any degree of certainty, so we’ll take it one step at a time. We learned a lot the first time around and we will use that experience to our advantage. The next few weeks will be interesting.

My love to everyone. Stay tuned.
--Roger