Yesterday we met the nice folks at the Colorado Blood Cancer
Institute (CBCI). I had my initial
consultation with Dr. Nash and my bone marrow transplant coordinator,
Kallee. Once my oncologist, Dr. Liel,
gets me to remission with these first rounds of chemotherapy, then she’ll
transfer my care from Kaiser’s oncology department over to the folks at CBCI
for the transplant process. The
appointment yesterday was my official “meet & greet”, initial physical,
consult & they drew my blood and swabbed my cheek to start my
“typing”. They also Fed-Ex’d a “sibling
kit” to my brother, Kyle, so that we can type him and see if he’s my match J We should know if Ky’s my match in about 2
weeks (fingers crossed)!!
It feels good that this typing process is underway. We learned SO much from the transplant
coordinator yesterday (it was seriously like trying to drink from a fire
hose)! My mom was with me and took TONS
of notes (thanks Mom!) and we got all of our questions answered, but man I was
emotionally and mentally exhausted after listening and learning so much about
the process. Totally cool information to learn about though! We walked out of
there with binders (literally) full of information that my caregiver will need
to know, a big packet of forms for me to go through, and much more.
Key points:
Once we find my match (hopefully in the next 2 months or so) I will go
into the hospital for about 3 weeks, undergo another round of chemo to kill off
all my blood cells & then receive my stem-cell transplant. The transplant team requires that I have a
full-time (24/7) dedicated caregiver for the first 100 days out of the hospital
(holy cow!). We are REALLY hoping that
everything will go according to plan and that my transplant can happen over the
summertime so that my mom can be here to help out since she’ll be off from
school at that time! Essentially I will need someone to clean, cook, drive me
to appointments almost everyday of the week (thank goodness for moms!) I’m thinking that I’m going to have to
really learn how to give up control with this stuff, which will be quite a
lesson because I SO enjoy being independent! Another thing I found interesting is that CBCI
requires that patients live within 20 miles of the transplant center (because
of the frequency of which I’ll be visiting them). Thankfully we live within the 20 mile radius
(yay for being close to the “big city”) J lol. This means that I should be able to do most
of my recovery at home (otherwise, they require that you stay in a hotel within
20 miles!) This is a serious commitment!
I’m assuming that I’ll have to sign some sort of patient contract with
CBCI at some point before my actual transplant…I wonder if I should sign it in
blood J
lol
-Chellie
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