Monday, June 16- Bald

Well this morning was interesting.  Joyce, the head nurse came in and announced that my ANC (white bloods cells that fight infection) had risen to 1,600, well above the 500 release limit and that she was going to start the paperwork to get out of the hospital by noon.  Three days ago my ANC began to climb.  It moved to 200, then 600 and to 1,600 this morning.  There's just one problem.  The doc thinks it's about five days early to see it move so fast.  The jump could be a response to all the steroids they are giving me, or because I am simply much more fit than the average cancer patient.  So, she's keeping me in one more day.  Personally, I like the fitness excuse and celebrated by riding 25 miles on the bike.

As you can see from the selfie, my hair began falling out, so A nurse buzzed it off.  At least I look more like a cancer patient now.

The weird transformation from lymphoma to very aggressive leukemia makes me a 'high risk' case.  Long term survival is based on four things happening:

1.  My day-28 bone marrow biopsy needs to show that the chemo put me in or very close to remission.  Doc thinks the odds are 80-90% in my favor.

2.  I need to find a matching donor.  I was originally told that the odds of finding a match on the national data base fell between 40-50%.  Because my ancestory is common Irish/English (there are a lot of them on data based), the doc said my chances are 60%.  In addition, I have my brother Don, who has a 25% chance.  So, according to Drew, who is given to analysis, my odds of finding a matching donor are 70%.

3.  The 'state of my disease' needs to be below 0.2% at the time of transplant, or it won't get done.  Dr Patel said the fact that my ANC was rising 5 days early and strong was a good sign.  Odds for this one are difficult, but good.  Say 60+%.

4.  Finally, the transplant needs to work.  I'm not sure of odds, but they again appear to be in my favor, assuming I make that far, say 60%.

So the odds of look favorable for each variable.  I just need to hit four of them in a row.  Like I said, there is hope and a path to a cure, which sure sounds better than when I was admitted.

There are fallback options if I miss the mark on any variable, but the odds of success begin to fall rapidly.  The plan is to get me quickly to the bone marrow transplant; hopefully within 2 months.

Here's today's faith insight.  I picked it up from reading an article about Matt Chandler, who is the pastor at The Village Church.  Sherry and I attended The Village for two years when he was diagnosed with brain cancer and given 2-3 years to live.  He handled his situation so well and appears to have beaten the cancer.  He cited Matthew 7:24-27:

"Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who builds his house on the rock.  And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did no fall, because it had been founded on the rock.  And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.  And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it."  Matt's point was that both houses got hit by the storm.  Believing in God doesn't protect us from trials.  Faith simply will allows us to properly stand up to them and trust God.