8-22-11

Today was the first day of the process at the hospital that is to lead up to them taking of my stem cells for the transplant.  My brother (whom I will call “Paul” because (a) that is not his real name and (b) I want to respect his privacy even on the internet) left Austin about 5:00 am and drove to Houston.  It was a pretty full day of tests and procedures.  I filled out forms, had an EKG and a chest x-ray, gave a urine sample and had 20 (!) vials of blood taken for testing.  I think some of them were actually to be given to a pet vampire, but they wouldn’t admit that.  Since my blood has a special purpose at the moment, they want to be certain that it is not going to somehow cause harm.

Paul went through the same kind of routine, but he only had to give 11 vials of blood.  He also had a few additional tests, most notably a bone marrow biopsy which required the drilling of a small hole through the bone in his hip.

MD Anderson Cancer Center is an amazing place.  I had no idea how many patients are treated there for all types of cancer.  I spent most of the day in the areas dedicated to the treatment of bone marrow disorders.  There are several waiting rooms in those areas and there were at least 100 people in each every time I passed through.  Many of those waiting are very sick.  I assume that all of them in the transplant area are in some stage of the transplant or recovery process.  I sincerely hope that all of them will benefit, and it did make me feel sort of good that I am doing my part to help at least one person.

Paul is very tired tonight, as he had to go through all of the poking and prodding with a very limited supply of blood.  To a large extent, he has been living on blood transfusions for the past six months.  He received a transfusion of two units of blood late last week – enough to keep him alive, but not to thrive.

This illness and fatigue is not the norm for Paul.  Less than a year ago, he retired from a position with the Department of Defense and celebrated by climbing one of Colorado’s 14’ers – that is, a mountain with an elevation exceeding 14,000 feet.  He seemed to be very healthy, except he had an enlarged spleen.  His doctors told him that the spleen would need to be removed.

The splenectomy was performed after he moved to Austin in January.  Amazingly, his spleen, which should be about the size of a fist, was the same size as his liver and weighed ten pounds – and he had two extra “auxiliary” spleens.  A few weeks after that he began having health problems, was found to be severely anemic and, after being seen by a numerous doctors, was diagnosed with myelofibrosis.

It seems that since the fibrous tissues in his bone marrow prevented blood from being made there, as is the usual process, his spleen took over that function and was making the blood he needed for life.  The body is an amazing and intelligent organism!  However, when the spleen was removed, the source of most of his blood was gone.

Tomorrow promises to be another day of poking and prodding – at least for my brother.