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Good Bye for a While

Hope everyone is doing well today, I have just returned from the hospital where I had my first MRI. Nothing major as far as involvement but you are inside of this relatively small tube for 20-25 minutes, assuming every goes well. It didn’t bother me but I can see how some people have trouble with the experience. The quest to find the cause of my headaches continues, should know the results in 2-3 weeks.

As you know I am leaving for Toronto tomorrow just after lunch and I will be gone for a week arriving home the following week. The reason for my week long visit is that I will be banking my sperm on this trip. I’m not sure if I have talked about this before, I don’t think, but the reasons for this are that chemo has damaging affects on sperm and should I decide to have a Transplant immediately or in the short term I will be sterile as a result. Thus it is important that I attempt to bank my sperm now. I say attempt as the present condition of my sperm is not known at this point, chemo and the numerous different cocktails have a variety of affects on my system and thus my sperm. I will know more after my first appointment at the Toronto Hospital on the 12th. Either way I will hopefully have some ‘viable’ boys this trip, or else I may make other attempts in the future, certainly prior to a Transplant if that is the route I choose. It is the sperm banking that is keeping me in Toronto for a week, hopefully I will be able to occupy myself. (sigh!)

And of course the major reason for my trip is the bone marrow assessment, which I have at Princess Margaret Hospital on the morning of the 15th. This meeting should answer all my questions, provide lots more information on the process, what’s involved and highlight the pro’s and con’s of a Transplant. From there I will have to make the Transplant decision, when this decision will be made exactly I don’t know, but it is something that I have thought a lot about and may want to think a lot more about. Either way there are so many options and possibilities for next treatment that I won’t discuss them. I know I arrive home next week, and anything past that is a guess.

The Two Extremes: To give you some idea of the decision that is facing me I will briefly paint the extreme pictures and what they may involve. Basically I say yes or no to the Transplant, if I say yes then to my knowledge the most likely time that I would have a Transplant will be 6 months after first round chemo, which would be around March/April. This option involves the robbery of approximately 12 months, which means my Series would last about 18 months. The details of the Transplant procedure are things that I will talk about after my appointment and of course you will have exposure to my brain during the decision process. The other side is that I don’t choose to have a Transplant and I come home for third round chemo, this would start fairly promptly, within a few days of my arrival home. Should I have third round with no Transplant I would probably take 4-5 months to get back to “normal” which would see me hopefully return to the real world in July/August.

These are the two extreme options, to give you an idea of the decision tree I am playing with. You can create almost any combination of chemo and Transplant that you wish. I may have both chemo and a Transplant, with the Transplant in 6 months, 2 years, 10 years. A few weeks ago I tried answering the question, “what happens next”, but gave up due to the many unknowns involved with the answer. I can say that, as expected things get more complicated as I progress through my Series.

Speaking of my Series and Game 2 specifically, my blood levels have hit a plateau of sorts. My Doctor is pleased but the magic numbers we chased in Game 1 seem far off at this point. The treatment that I have received brings the blood levels back slowly so Game 2 stands at 39 days today. I probably won’t have blood work until my Transplant Assessment or possibly when I get home, so there won’t be much news on my levels. As far as I can tell the reason my levels were so important in Game 1 was because we were looking to achieve remission, this time I am in remission thus no or little Leukemia in the blood.

Now you have an idea of what I will be doing in Toronto for the next week, I haven’t decided whether or not I will take my computer, but you will hear from me soon either way. I will touch base with all the details of my trip either as they happen or in one massive message, these days they all seem massive. Have a great week and you will hear from me soon.

Geoff
#4

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