Erika's Treatment Update -- Week 3

Hi again!

Just a quick update on my visit to Seattle and the upcoming plans for
treatment...

Monday morning I went for a blood count at my doctor's office and he
was completely shocked with my counts. When I told him I was leaving
for Seattle that evening his face turned white and said there was no
way I could get on a plane without at least three transfusions, two
shots, and would need to wear my BMT mask on the plane. So my Monday
was spent (9-6:15pm) at the hospital getting two units of blood and one
of platelets. Definitely not what I expected my day to be like since I
hadn't packed or gotten ready for Seattle. I had 10 minutes from the
time we got home from Stanford to pack and get out the door to the
airport. We were just glad to have made it on the plane!

We arrived in Seattle late that evening and had a consultation with a
non-Hodgkin's lymphoma specialist early that morning. The doctor that
we met with thought that staying at Stanford was the best opportunity
for me since their (Seattle's) protocol would delay transplant for a
couple of months and we wouldn't want to take the risk of my disease
getting uncontrollable and my opportunity for transplant being gone.
She felt that they would want to get me into remission again first
before doing another transplant, however I don't have that luxury since
I don't respond well to chemo and my counts are really suffering from
all the chemo I've already received. Stanford on the other hand is
willing to do the transplant without getting me into remission which is
what I need. The good news is that Stanford has found a donor in the
bone marrow registry which is a much better match than my dad/sister
and they will be using him/her instead. I don't know anything about
the donor at this point, although I do know that I will be able to find
out their age, sex, and whether they're in the US or abroad.

While I was meeting with my Stanford doctor yesterday we discussed the
possibility of doing another round of chemo before my transplant. On
Monday they had decided that this was not possible since my counts were
extremely low, however yesterday they had started to come up so I was
able to convince him into doing another round. I know you're probably
thinking I'm nuts for wanting more chemo, but basically the more
controlled my disease is the better chance of the transplant working.
I'm willing to take the risk of getting really sick just so my chances
of the transplant working are slightly higher. So as of yesterday,
this should be my schedule for the next month:

July 5, 6, & 7 = more chemo at Stanford

July 12-23 = tests and appointments to get me prepared for transplant

July 25 = admitted to Stanford for transplant

July 26-30 = radiation & ATG (weakens immune system)

Aug 2-5 = radiation

Aug 6 = transplant

Since our appointment was so short in Seattle, Chris and I took
advantage of the rest of the day and went to the space needle,
downtown, Pike's market, and the 1st Starbuck's. We ended up having a
great day, it was a nice mini vacation :)

Well that's it for this week, I'm actually headed back to Stanford
later this morning for some more tests. Hope you all have a great 4th
of July weekend!!

Love always,
Erika Arredondo