We met with Dr. Advani and Dr. Hancock yesterday, and they agree that Graham would benefit from a bone marrow transplant (BMT). Dr. Laporte, the transplant doctor, had been hoping to do a double transplant, but an auto transplant can't be done when the cancer is so active, so they will just do what's called an ablative allogeneic BMT. They'll give Graham high-dose chemo to blast the rest of the cancer, and then replace his destroyed stem cells with a donor's. He'll be in the hospital for about a month.
There's a decent chance that this treatment will actually cure Graham. Unfortunately, though, about a third of BMT patients don't live past a year. Each stage is fraught with various dangers.
Apparently there's a short window of time for Graham to get a transplant because his cancer is so aggressive, so thankfully his brother Gary is a match, and the transplant can take place as soon as September 11th. Gary will truly be a life-saver, because it usually takes 3-4 months to find an unrelated donor, and Graham's "window" would be closed by then.
Gary is very excited about being able to help his brother, and we are so grateful for his generosity. Gary will need to get several neupogen shots to rev up his stem cell production, and this will give him some bone pain for about a week. The actual extraction of the stem cells is painless. It's very similar to giving blood.
Prior to September 11th, Graham has all kinds of tests to get through: a PET scan, bone marrow biopsy, echo cardiogram, pulmonary something or other...the list is endless. Thank goodness Stanford is only 10 minutes away!
There's a decent chance that this treatment will actually cure Graham. Unfortunately, though, about a third of BMT patients don't live past a year. Each stage is fraught with various dangers.
Apparently there's a short window of time for Graham to get a transplant because his cancer is so aggressive, so thankfully his brother Gary is a match, and the transplant can take place as soon as September 11th. Gary will truly be a life-saver, because it usually takes 3-4 months to find an unrelated donor, and Graham's "window" would be closed by then.
Gary is very excited about being able to help his brother, and we are so grateful for his generosity. Gary will need to get several neupogen shots to rev up his stem cell production, and this will give him some bone pain for about a week. The actual extraction of the stem cells is painless. It's very similar to giving blood.
Prior to September 11th, Graham has all kinds of tests to get through: a PET scan, bone marrow biopsy, echo cardiogram, pulmonary something or other...the list is endless. Thank goodness Stanford is only 10 minutes away!
Gary
1 comment:
What a mensch Gary is too...seems to run in the family!
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