TNT Kick Off, BMT Reunion, & SF Marathon Expo

Today was a very busy day for us. We started the morning off by attending the Fall TNT kick-off. Training starts tomorrow morning, however we will be unable to attend due to the SF marathon.

Right after that we headed to Stanford for the BMT reunion. This was the first year I was able to attend due to my relapse last year. I wasn't planning to go since I wasn't sure I wanted to remember that time all over again, however at the last minute I decided to go and I was very happy that I did. I got to see some nurses and doctor's that I hadn't seen in almost a year and share some good times. I've attached a group picture of all the BMT survivors that were there (the people wearing leis have been out of transplant 10+ years), as well as one of me and Dr. Lowsky (my BMT doctor). Me and my friend Andrew (who is awaiting a 2nd transplant and I used to work at Harmonic with) are on the top left side of the group picture. I got to chat briefly with my BMT doctor during the reunion (I usually see him once a month anyway) and to my surprise he discussed the possibility of doing some DLI's (donor lymphocite infusions) on me. DLI's are basically where they put a small dose of your original donor's cells into you (kind of like a very mini transplant) in hopes that they help out in fighting your disease. The main risk with doing these is getting graft vs host disease. I had asked about the possibility of doing these in the past, but he always said that my disease was too advanced and that the risks would outweight the benefits, however now he seems to think differently. He feels that the chemo I've been getting can't possibly be what's keeping my disease under control since it never responded this way in the past with much stronger chemo's so he thinks that my donor's cells must be doing something and that by getting some more into me it may keep my disease under control even longer. He's still in the early stages of thinking it through, but it's something that he's willing to discuss and look further into. The fact that I did have a breakout of GVHD just recently worries him a little bit, but I told him I'm willing to risk anything. Of course we would still have to see if my donor from Germany would be willing to donate again and is still eligible.

After the reunion, we headed up to the city to the SF Marathon Expo where we picked up our bibs and race packets. We then drove through part of the course that we will be walking through tomorrow. It's hard to believe that in a few hours we will be out there walking all those miles!