The Chimerism

“Chimerism (Marrow Transplant Engraftment) Monitoring assesses the relative ratio of donor and recipient cell populations in the post-transplant peripheral blood and/or bone marrow of the patient.”

Since the stem cell transplant, my oncologists perform chimerism studies (blood work) every couple of months to determine the percentage of my brother’s cells in my blood stream. My most recent study just came back and I am 100% my brother’s cells. Obviously this is outstanding news.

However it isn’t always peaches and cream. There are many things that can go wrong with a donor stem cell transplant. The same way things can go wrong with an organ transplant. Even with a perfect match, complications can occur. The worst, of course, resulting in death.

Wikipedia states Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a common complication of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation in which functional immune cells in the transplanted marrow recognize the recipient as "foreign" and mount an immunologic attack. It can also take place in a blood transfusion under certain circumstances.

In simpler terms, your body rejects the new stuff and tries to fight it off by any means necessary. I have some first hand experience with GVHD, even with a 100% chimerism of Beau’s cells.

Seven months ago, my breathing became so labored I was using an oxygen machine. I landed in the hospital for 4 days over Memorial Day weekend and have been taking steroids ever since. Luckily, the steroids corrected my breathing but left my body a battered, bloated, and fluid-filled mess.

Funny thing about steroids…the first 4-6 weeks I felt empowered and unstoppable. This must be the reason why athletes use them but only in cycles. Since those initial weeks, the muscles in my legs and lower back deteriorated to the point where I had to push myself up from chairs because my legs were too weak. I actually fractured my lower back trying to pick up my son and needed 2 weeks of bed rest and 3 months of physical therapy.

And don’t get me started on the hunger and eating related problems. There wasn’t enough food in the house to keep my appetite at bay. I am a good eater anyway and this just made things worse. But once the energy went away, the pounds packed on as did the fluid. Unfortunately, now the fluid is in my skin and not my veins, so I have to wait until the steroids are completely tapered down before the fluid will hopefully flush out of my body. Ugh!!!

The moral of this story is. You need to take the good with the bad. I wouldn’t have gotten to this point (cancer free) without having been through many struggles. The initial battle is over but the war still rages on.

Keep me in your prayers and I’ll keep up my spirit and the fight.

~Cheers