Approved!! Holy Crap!

I got the call 2 days ago that my stem cell (or bone marrow) transplant has been approved! The call was kind of funny..."congratulations, yay i'm so happy"...blah blah blah. I hung up and reality smacked me in the forehead - this is REALLY going to happen - holy shit!!! I decided to have a semi-breakdown and figured that Coors Light was the answer...it wasn't, but it did make me feel better - along with wrapping presents, talking to Bret and my mom and texting Kelly and Allison....lol

So, as of right now, here is the unconfirmed schedule (they are suppose to call me today and let me know if the appointment dates are for sure)....

Next week sometime I have to go to UCLA and meet with the doctor and the transplant coordinator to sign a bunch of consent forms and go over the plan of action.

December 23rd I get chemo to mobilize the stem cells. They are only going to give me one type of chemo - cytoxin....so that shouldn't be too bad (I hope).

December 24th I learn how to and start giving myself shots of neulasta...which is a white count booster. I believe I have to do these every day (will know more next week)

January 4th I will get the dual line port, since the veins in my arms are shot because of the chemo 18 years ago. I don't know why they can't use the big ole one in my forehead that bulges out...it would be perfect!! haha I also will start the harvesting process on this day. Hopefully I produce good and this is a quick process.

From there we see how many days it takes me to produce enough cells to use for transplant. Once that is said and done, I will be admitted into the hospital to get the real party started! Here is how that is going to go down....

They start the days as a negative number...so we begin with day -8

-8 TBI - Total body irradiation, twice a day
-7 TBI again
-6 TBI yet again
-5 TBI...this will be the last one
-4 Chemo - Etoposide over 4 hours
-3 Rest
-2 chemo - Cytoxin along with MESNA (a drug to protect my kidneys and bladder)
-1 Rest
0 Transplant!!! This is called "day zero" or my new "birthday"
Then we start with the positive numbers...all days of rest. Around day 10, my blood counts should start to come up and day 12 will be discharge (provided that the counts are okay). So....if you count all those days, it is a minimum of 21 days in the hospital!!

Once I am discharged, I have to stay close to the hospital in case anything happens. This could be anywhere from 2-4 weeks, depending on how well I am doing.

Now that you have seen the schedule of events, you can see why I am saying Holy Shit!!! hahahaha! I am sure that the time is going to just fly by and before I know it I will be back at work and school and this will all just be a distant memory of something that made me the person that I am.....the worlds strongest fighter!

On a funny note...
Last night Bret and I went to the grocery store and he grabbed the wrong can of sauce, since we were at the checkout already I told him I would take it back and get the right one. He showed me the can he wanted and my chemo brain did not register it at all...I went to the aisle and grabbed a completely different one! haha I got back and he said "that's the wrong one" I said "that damn chemo brain, I can't even remember from here to there" for some reason this totally gave us both the giggles and then I asked Bret "and who are you again" and now the checker was laughing too...hahahah good times!!! I swear I have completely lost my head lately, like I am totally stuck on stupid!!! Um, yea I am sooo ready to get ME back!

I think that just about covers it for now...although I don't remember half the stuff I want to say, so there may be more in a few hours!! LOL

xoxo - Joni