Denise had an autologous stem cell transplant in December 2011. She has an identical twin sister Robyn, who lives in Norway. The plan was to fly Robyn out to Sydney, harvest her stem cells and transplant them into Denise - a syngeneic transplant. During the pre-harvest checks several lesions were discovered on Robyn's lungs so it was decided to use Denise's own stem cells. Robyn's cells were harvested and frozen. There are many sites available that explain the transplant process - Google is your friend.
The transplant aftermath is not for the faint-hearted but the outcome has been excellent. It is only now, 4 years later, that the bad guys are coming back in force and another transplant is being scheduled for February next year. The lesions in Robyn's lungs turned out to be benign so this transplant will be syngeneic using Robyn's frozen stem cells. The pre-transplant treatment will probably start next week - Velcade, also called Bortezomib (Why do cancer treatment drugs have names that sound like they were created by Vogons?) is the prime mover. Look it up if you dare. The side effects are the stuff of nightmares. There are steroids in the mix also. Anyone on the roids can be dangerous so I just keep my head down and hope for the best. Denise will be given antidepressants during the pre-treatment. For my safety's sake, I hope it is so.
This time the oncologist is going to prescribe sleeping pills to help keep the wide, wild, steroid eyes at bay. Last time Denise was up at all hours, roaming the house. I discovered her at 03:00 one morning gazing out the front window with her steroid induced 1000 metre stare. "Do you think I'm bipolar?" she asked. "No", says I. She shifted the stare to me and said "Neither do I, but thinking you're not is a symptom.". I retreated to the safety of the sheets.
