Day 100

Matched Unrelated Donor Transplant (MUD)

It's hard to believe that just 100 days have gone by, it feels like a life time. The discussion on whether having a BMT is worth the risks has prompted me to post an update on my MUD BMT for Multiple Myeloma. Well about a month out of the hospital I was starting to feel human, and then I started the pregnizone withdrawal. I've been nauseous since then, even to the point of not being able to eat and going on TPN for a couple of weeks. It's under control, and I'm eating the minimum to stay off of TPN. The only other problem has been a recurring staff infection probably related to the central line (Cook). I had the line replaced, but the infection just came back. Very annoying. So all in all I don't have much to complain about, I've managed to stay out of the hospital, all systems are still functioning, and the docs are happy.

On the mental front I'm really sick of being sick. The mental side of this is tougher than I imagined. I would really like to just go to sleep and wake up when it's all over, but I guess that's not how God set this place up.

It's interesting that even though I have 100% engraftment I still have measurable cancer (M-proteins), very annoying. Sometime towards the end of January, I will get my donors T-cells, which I'm guessing is a ticket to a whole new roller coaster ride. We expect the T-cells to have an anti myeloma effect that will clear any residual cancer cells.

Laurel, thank you for your wonderful note on the "benefits" of going through this. As I slog through the process it seems easy to loose sight of the reasons I got into it in the first place. I'm looking forward to one of those "It's great to be alive!" days. I know it's out there. All I have to do is get through 265 more "what am I doing here?" days. Like I've always said, I'm glad there's no on/off switch. But then, you know, it is great to be alive.

Ty Chaney (47)

Matched Unrelated Donor Bone Marrow Transplant

Multiple Myeloma / IGG Light Chain