The Heavy

Kristi met with her Bone Marrow Transplant Teem. I wasn't available, it was during my class. Fortunately, we had it recorded. The SCI mic is terrific. I'll summarize the details here, but the recording is packed with information, though it's 30 minutes long. Clearly the team-lead has done this before. It's a well polished presentation. First there are numbers, statistics. They were provided by the team-lead, but I haven't found a reference for them (yet). Without a transplant, the docs put her survival chances very low. With a transplant, her survival rate jumps to 50-60%. Transplants are delicate procedures. Once she enters the hospital, she will have five days of intense chemo and full-body radiation therapy. The aim is to completely eliminate any of her own marrow. Transplant day is called "Day 0", and the stem cells are delivered intravenously. For several weeks after, she will be completely defenseless, while the stem cells take hold and replenish her marrow. There will be a period after she is discharged that she will need 24-7 care, likely to be about a month. The period of about three months to a year after the transplant will involve anti-rejection treatment. The probability of rejection is fairly significant, around 30%. There are contingencies for everything. If a donor isn't located (she currently only has 4 potential matches worldwide), (double) umbilical cord stem cells are the next option. They won't have the strong potential for rejection, but they also won't provide much of the essential rejection of cancerous myelocytes. From there, the options are even more limited.