You’re my life now. Part six

 So the C word was used by the very person who never uses the C word. It drifted gently in amongst a cavalcade of explanations of stem cell treatment outcomes. As soon as it landed I knew it was significant and I gently picked it up and gave it the prominence I hope it deserved.

“I thought Cure was a dirty word”

“ slip of the tongue, it’s important to manage expectations”

The consultant was excited. There are numerous matches to my bone marrow in the database and one of them in particular exceeds expectations. Ideally the team will look for up to ten common markers in the bone marrow between donor and host to absolutely minimise the chances of rejection. They’ve found one with twelve common markers; a 22 year old Welshman. If conversations are productive then I’m set for a transfusion around mid. March.

Stem cell transfer is not risk free; in fact there’s a 15% chance that the patient could die. On the other hand there’s an 85% chance they won’t. There’s then the period after the transfer where rejection is a real possibility and that’s a whole world of chaos. The process involves removing my bone marrow cells and replacing them with the donor ‘s and at that point I am even more vulnerable to infection than I was on the first two chemo sessions. Vulnerability then lasts for up to a year afterwards so its a long road ahead. In the meantime I’m at home building up my reserves for a potential third course of chemo before the stem cell operation.

On a more mundane note I am feeling some side effects from the therapy, most notably in the gut but that does appear to be slowly recovering. I’ve also developed a metallic taste in my mouth which doesn’t override my taste buds but adds a rather unpleasant postscript. I’m sleeping better because the beds in the hospital are truly appalling but I am waking at 1am, 3am and 5am. These are the times that I would have been woken to have my blood pressure taken in the hospital and now form part of sleep pattern.

So I’m in a hopeful place. There’s a 50:50 chance apparently that I might well make it out the other end with limited collateral damage; I can see a path. The stem cell transfer is optional but it’s been made clear to me that without it I could be dead within the next two years so a bit of a no brainier. 

I remember in my first sales role for an insurance company there was a maxim: “roll the hearse up to the door and let them smell the flowers”.  I think I get the message.

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