You guys. I can’t believe this day is here already!!! My time here in Mexico has been better than I could have ever expected. I know I’ve got a hard week of isolation and exhaustion ahead of me but these past two weeks have been pretty smooth! It has not been without its side effects, sure. But I prepared myself mentally for that. I really truly believe that having a positive and realistic mindset makes the world of difference when going through hard times like this.
Let me back track a little as I’ve gotten some questions wondering why I paid so much to go to another country to get a stem cell transplant when there are places all over the USA that “do stem cells” for much cheaper. First off, HSCT is NOT reliant on the stem cells. The goal of the stem cells are to aid in recovery from the chemo. The “cure” is in the chemo. MS is an autoimmune disease and whole point of HSCT is to kill off that faulty immune system. Yesterday was my final high-dose cyclophosphamide chemotherapy that hopefully killed off the rest of my immune system that was attacking my nerves. Those 4 chemo infusions were the most crucial part of treatment. Stem cells without the chemo isn’t going to give you any lasting results because you aren’t treating the problem. The problem is the immune system and that is what the chemo destroys. So that is why I chose to come to Mexico to get this done. Because I want this fixed, not masked. There are plenty of places back home that offer stem sell transplants and therapies, but that’s not how getting rid of MS has been proven to work. And I chose to do what works!
Today is a big day. Today at 10am I go back to the clinic and the doctors will bring in my bag of 74,000,000 stem cells and will return them to me. Stem cells are amazing little cells that don’t carry memory and they will help my body rebuld my immune system. I am hopeful that these cells will build a healthy immune system that only destroys the bad things in my body and leaves my nerves alone.
Today is transplant day and the beginning of the next phase which is neutropenic recovery. During neutropenia my white blood cells are abnormally low (the whole point of chemo is to destroy those white blood cells), which means my susceptibility to infections is extremely high. I’m essentially walking through a big danger zone for the next week where I (along with anyone around me) will have to practice extreme caution to not bring in any germs or bacteria that could really cause some major problems. Getting sick or a little infection could rapidly lead to sepsis in this stage of recovery which would likely lead to rapid death. It happens. It’s a risk we are all aware of. But it can largely be avoided by practicing extreme caution. After today I’ll be living in my apartment quarantined from the rest of the world and their nasty germs. I will leave only for scheduled appointments at the clinic and every 48-72 hours I will have a doctor come in to check my blood levels waiting to see those white blood cell counts start to rise after they bottom out. Tuesday I’ll start those pesky Filgrastim shots again to help aid in a speedy recovery. Luckily they will only be once a day instead of twice a day like we were doing before my stem cells were collected.
But today is a happy day. It’s my stemmie birthday!! The first day of the rest of my life without MS. Today is a day of new beginnings and a day to mark on the calendar as my new birthday. I am so excited and hopeful and eternally grateful for everyone back at home and around the world who have supported me and encouraged me though this so far. And I am more than anything so thankful for this amazing team of doctors and nurses and support staff here in Monterrey who work tirelessly to help us patients out in any way that they can. It is a really amazing group of people here and they are working miracles every day.
And I finally get this giant picc line taken out today! Hallelujah!!
I will be sure to share some videos and pictures later today. I’m off to take my last shower with my long hair and then it’s transplant time!!
¡ADIÓS MS!
Adios, MS! 