Transplant!

I met with Stanford's Bone Marrow Transplant team last week, and they recommend I move forward with an autologous transplant in September.  Here are some takeaways from the meeting:

• I don't need to make a hard decision.
  They are recommending I do a stem cell transplant using my own harvested stem cells.  They say that my case is pretty straightforward and they think the auto transplant is the only real choice to consider right now.  I was worried they'd recommend I go the allogeneic transplant route using stem cells from a donor.  That procedure has an extremely high risk of complications, so I'm glad I don't have to make that decision at this point.  They said I could consider an allogeneic stem cell transplant down the road, so getting an autologous stem cell transplant now doesn't close any doors.
  
• Offering me a stem cell transplant now is a good sign.
  The reason why the autologous stem cell transplant is the obvious recommendation at this point is because I'm healthy, still really early stage in the cancer (no kidney/bone damage, barely any anemia), and responding well to treatment.
  
• The transplant itself doesn't seem too terrible.
  There will be appointments and tests in the six weeks leading up to the transplant date.  At some point during that six week period, they'll give me drugs to cause my body to produce a large amount of stem cells.  They will eventually harvest those stem cells before nuking my body hard to try to eradicate any remaining trace of the cancer.  They then give me back my harvested stem cells to rebuild and restore my immune system.
  
  The procedure will be out-patient, and I'll only need to spend one night in the hospital (the day after the transplant itself).  I'll be immuno-compromised at various points in time, so I'll need to stay in except when being transported for regular doctor visits.  They'll provide a mask for me to wear.  I'll need a caretaker for at least the first 30-days after the transplant, but they say it's more for things like food-preparation and driving me to appointments; I should be able to do most things myself (though I'll be very fatigued).
  
  I'll probably need to miss 2 months of work at minimum, but probably closer to around 3 months.  Praise God that Google gives up to 90 days of fully paid medical leave though, and if I need more than that, I can still get partial pay.  What a blessing!
  
• In the meantime, I should finish up two more cycles of chemo.
  Last Friday I started my fifth 28-day cycle of chemo.  I aim to wrap up my sixth cycle of chemo at the end of August so we can move forward with the transplant.  

Anyway, I'm sure I'll get more details in the weeks to come.  For now, I'm actually a little excited about the transplant.  I'm sure the physical effects won't be fun, but the whole procedure sounds fascinating.  I'm also looking forward to getting as much of the cancer wiped out from my body as possible.

Things that I'm looking forward to:

• I want to dye my hair before shaving it off.  I'll probably have my hair a different color for a week or so before they need me to shave it.  There's probably no better time for a change.  :)
• I will get a port installed in my chest for the chemo.  A kid at our church, Jon, has been going through chemo and has a port.  We'll get to be twins!  It's also pretty cool having a hole sticking out of your chest.  I'm sure I can gross a few people out with that, which should be pretty funny.
• Recovery time.  I've been working while on chemo, and while I can handle things physically and mentally, it's still a bit wearying to do both.  It will be nice to shut off work for a bit and focus on recovery.  Not to mention the nurse told me to stock up on books, movies, and video games since I won't be able to be too active during the first few weeks of recovery.