August 15 or 16 the SCT begins

We were notified this morning that the donor has scheduled his/her stem cell harvest dates as Aug. 13 & 14. From this, we believe the infusion of the donor's stem cells to me, will take place either Aug. 15th or 16th. This is wonderful news! We have given our MUD Coordinator (Matched Unrelated Donor) Wednesday August 1st as the date I will be available for further testing & conditioning. We are hopeful she can spin her magic & fit all of my testing & conditioning (chemo "lite" & full body radiation "lite") within the 15 day window. Otherwise, we'll have to give up some days in July to get everything done.

Many friends have asked, just how do they get the donor's stem cells (SC)? It is rather simple in that a week or more before the harvesting begins, the donor receives a series of shots to stimulate his (we will refer to the donor as being a male although that may not be the actual case) production of SC. These shots often cause the donor significant bone pain, which will last until a few days beyond his last shot. On Aug. 13th, the nearest collection center to where the donor lives (the donor will not come to Houston) will take charge & place the donor in one of their comfortable patient chairs; put a needle in one arm to draw his blood, the blood will past though a machine similar to an aferesis machine. Here the needed blood products are separated by the machine & the remaining blood is returned to the donor via needle into his other arm. The process of harvesting the blood products will take at least 4-6 hours per day. When the harvesting process is completed on Aug.14th, a representative from the National Marrow Donor Program (located in MN) takes the harvested blood, puts it into a cooler & heads off to the airport to catch the earliest flight to Houston, Texas. We do not know my donor's name nor do we know where he lives. He could live in Buffalo, NY or Berlin, Germany. Regardless, once the transporter (that was a strange but good movie,the sequel was even better) arrives, I believe that's when the transplant takes place. I will receive the SC as an IV infusion probably along with a bag of saline solution. Leslie will be taking pictures of the event. The entire infusion process will take 20-30 minutes.

It seems very odd that all of the time, effort, money, & stress involved with making the decision, patient screening, donor searching & screening, coordination at MDACC, my further testing, chemo, & radiation, travel, etc. leads us to just a 30 minute walk-in-the-park event.

As more information becomes available to us, will share it with you. Sooner or later, we will begin a daily diary. Until the next time, stay well & keep those prayers & good wishes coming in.

Stan