Hi Friends,
Elizabeth is on Day +10 from transplant! She had transplant on Thursday August 31st, so Day +1 was September 1st (making it all the easier to keep track of what day out from transplant she is).
Transplant was delayed slightly (from Tuesday to Thursday) but was just as uneventful as the doctors predicted. The transplant looks a lot like a blood transfusion. The only difference is that instead of being a bag of blood, it is a creamy pink color. The stem cells themselves are kind of white (like platelets), but there are just a couple red blood cells that make it into the bag giving it a pinkish color.
Some more tidbits about the transplant: Elizabeth changed blood type from A- to B+. From the day of transplant until when the transplant “engrafts” and starts making new blood she is getting O type blood products whenever she needs transfusions. This is because A and B type bloods actually have antibodies to each other and so they don’t want to confuse her body until it fully makes the switch. She didn’t feel any different during the transplant and didn’t even have any reactions (hives or fevers are very common) so the whole thing went very smoothly. Her donor is from another country! But we don’t know where.
This week has been the hardest part of treatment so far for Elizabeth. Post transplant, people usually start to feel the full effects of the chemo as their blood counts drop completely. On top of that, after transplant the first 11 days include doses of Methotrexate. This is a drug that keeps Elizabeth’s own immune system from bouncing back before the new immune system has a chance to take hold. The side effects are really crummy. The main side effect is mouth sores, which Elizabeth has experienced before but never to this degree. Our mouth, throat, and digestive track are some of the fastest regenerating parts of our body. Since the methotrexate keeps Elizabeth’s body from producing the kind of cells that repair tissue she has really painful sores and inflammation throughout her mouth, throat and stomach. This is called Mucositis.
Eating and drinking is extremely painful for Elizabeth so they are giving her all the nutrition and fluids she needs through her IV. She tried some pudding yesterday and has continued to drink water as much as possible, which is excellent. The nurses and doctors are all very reassuring that this is absolutely normal and expected, though that doesn’t make it any less awful for her to go through. They have worked hard to help find some pain management solutions for her. It doesn’t alleviate all the pain by any stretch, but it allows her a little relief and at least lets her get some rest.
Elizabeth got to look through a bunch of cards that her students made for her yesterday and it was an enormous highlight to the week (thank you for bringing those by, Gretchen!) She isn’t always able to answer her phone or respond to texts right now, but any photos, voicemails, or videos are great because she can listen/look at them whenever she’s awake. Mail is also super fun and she can put it up around her room. Our apartment’s address is 833 NE Schuyler St. Apt 4, Portland OR 97212. Little post cards or drawings are a huge pick-me-up and I will always deliver stuff by the next day at the latest!
Her counts will hopefully start to pick up this next week and she’ll probably be more up for visitors (she can have them now she just may be sleepy a lot of the time.) If you are having any trouble reaching her or wanting to know more about scheduling visits or who she’s doing, don’t hesitate to shoot me a text/email/call.
Here are some links to different resources to learn more about the transplant process and ways to donate blood or bone marrow (don’t worry – it’s not a scary surgery!):
Cancer.gov’s info on Adult Myeloid Leukemia
Be The Match’s info on how a bone marrow transplant works
How to join the national marrow registry
How to give blood, platelets or other blood products
Here are some ways to be involved in Elizabeth’s immediate care:
Also, feel free to look at the last post for more details on the caregiving plan going forward, and the nutrition page for info on what foods Elizabeth can eat!
Thank you to everyone for all their love and support of Elizabeth.
All my love,
Simone
Elizabeth's Updates 