Preparing for the Transplant

Things seem to be happening really fast now. The transplant doctor instructed Ray to get a complete dental exam to ensure he has a healthy mouth in readiness for the transplant. So he made the appointment since he was due for a regular check-up & cleaning anyhow. Because of his low immune system they had to give him antibiotics to preform the cleaning. No cavities but he has some sort of pocket in his gums between two teeth that he's had for years. The dentist was concerned that it could get infected & he reported as such to the Moffitt Center. To make a long story short, he is getting a tooth pulled tomorrow morning to ensure that when he has the transplant, there is no possibility of an unexpected infection causing serious problems. Because he's on coumadin, he'll remain longer than normal to make sure there's no serious bleeding.

The bad news is that the bone marrow biopsy did reveal that Ray has that nasty 17p chromosome & therefore the doctors feel it's important that he begin getting ready for a transplant because the 17p will cause the MDS to progress much quicker than if he didn't have it. And the past several months blood tests have indeed proven that to be the case. In ten days beginning on January 2nd. he will begin receiving chemo injections. Round 1 will consist of 7 straight days of injections followed by 3 weeks off.  They want him to receive at least four rounds of it which will take him up to May or June at which time they anticipate possibly doing the stem cell transplant if we can locate a donor match & all goes well.

We've been told that after beginning the chemo injections, at 1st we can anticipate his platelets to drop even more & at that point he'll probably need blood transfusions. But then they should rebound after a while. Also they prescribed anti-nausea meds for him to take as he undergoes the chemo because nausea is a very common side effect. That actually sounds like the worst part of it. Sadly we learned that when he begins the chemo, he must stop the coumadin & go full time on the shots we hate so much. But that's ok. We're learning to accept them as part of the "it is what it is" thing.

And so we plan to have the transplant here in Florida so we can be near the hospital which is vital. Dad & Randy will remain here until April, barring no unforeseen problems that would make it impossible for us to continue to be their caregivers over the next 3 months. We'll continue to make lots of trips on a weekly basis to the Moffitt Ctr but that's not so bad since it's only 10 to 15 min from us. They tell us Ray will probably start feeling tired but we hope they're wrong about that. After all, he's surprised them so far with his energy level remaining just fine! We do realize however that he must cut back on some activities (like playing tennis) because he can't risk any injuries.

This just all seems so surreal to us cause Ray feels perfectly fine right now. And even tho we are making lots of trips to the Moffitt Ctr for testing & consultations, & the shots & now getting that tooth pulled, etc. it hasn't really hit us yet. But something tells me that on January 2nd when he begins the chemo, it will...