D+0 - Notes from 'D' day (with apologies to the real 'D' day heroes)

Well, this is 'D' day, the day of my stem cell transplant. By coincidence it is three months to the day since I was diagnosed, it seems a long while ago now.

I've spent two of this three months in hospital mostly in a single room. The short breaks at home have been incredibly therapeutic both psychologically and physically. Fortunately, in hospital we have wifi thanks to a local charity, an absolute godsend, that and the mobile phone of course. Keeping in touch is keeping me sane.

When I'm well enough I read which is quite often, radio 4 is a boon in short bursts and I have discovered how to load some music onto my phone. Just re-read To Kill a Mockingbird which I last read as a teenager, I'd forgotten how short the chapters on the morphine withdrawal and on the trial were. Nevertheless, a very enjoyable read. We have a copy of Watchman which I'll read shortly. Also I've just read Barbara Kingsolver's Flight Bevaviour which was excellent, I enjoyed it more than Lacuna and even the Poison Wood Bible.

Enough of books. Today is a busy day, all in all about 22hrs worth of IV infusions though some can run simultaneously. Yesterday's infusions didn't finished till 10am this morning, then a 15min break for a shower etc before starting all over again! In addition I need a couple of units of blood, the anaemia is getting a little too low for comfort.

I feeling positive about all this despite the spikes in temperature from time to time and the lack of sleep. The transplant fills me with hope and also with trepidation. Everyone seem to get complications of some sort, the question is how how severe they are. I think they all make you pretty grotty but most are not life threatening. It'll take about 2-6 weeks for the graft to 'take', maybe longer if I get too many infections.

I've been incredibly fortunate so far, no major upsets and I hopped through two of the three major hurdles, namely getting into remission the first time (the consultants gave me a 55% of achieving this otherwise they were threatening me with 'hand grenade' therapy - their phrase - I didn't like to ask what this entailed). The second hurdle was finding a stem cell donor. The best donors are siblings and fortunately my sister is a full 10/10 match. Each sibling has a 1 in 4 chance of being a match. Of course this doesn't mean that having four siblings guarantees a match. I couldn't get my head round the stats (I blame the anaemia but it's more likely old age and stupidity!) so I asked Martin Rowlatt, the practice manager at my old practice and he came up with the answer very quickly. With three siblings, the answer is 55% (that number again!). If anyone wants the formula I'll post it on here!

I think this is more than enough for today. I won't post every day unless there is some news and I'm feeling up to it. I get the impression that the next few days are going to be pretty rough so apologies if there are some prolonged silences.

Now for the third hurdle!  I've got the transplant sometime in the next hour or so and after that I can't leave this room till my bone marrow starts to recover, hopefully some time in August

Love and best wishes to you all and a heartfelt thanks for all your support for Karine and me, it means a lot to us to know that so many people are thinking of us, praying for us and rooting for us.

David