Donors, transplant and other medical stuff

Monday's Nashville trip yielded an unexpected result. Neither of my siblings matched me to be a donor. I was prepared for that. What I wasn't prepared for was that since neither of them match me, I have to get the transplant somewhere other than the Sarah Cannon Institute. Apparently even though the doctors there have done this before many times at their previous places (MD Anderson, Harvard, Sloan Kettering), they don't have final approval to do it in Nashville. They had expected to be in the clear before now, but there are no guarantees as to when they will be able to do the type of transplant I need. And as it is not in my best interest to just wait, I need to go elsewhere.

Either UAB in Birmingham or Vanderbilt in Nashville are the two best choices. Yesterday I had an appointment with my doctor here in town. He had talked with the Nashville doc and I now have an appointment with a doctor at Vanderbilt on 14 April. This was made by a scheduler, so I need to call her back today and see if we can get that moved up. By not having the initial appointment there for three weeks, it is likely to severely delay when my transplant takes place.

The good news from yesterday is that my absolute neutrophil count was 0.8. While that is still below normal, the percentage of neutrophils to the rest of my white count is approaching normal. Not sure that means a lot, but it helps my psyche to see some of my tests look almost normal. :-) I had to get a platelet transfusion yesterday and am set up to get two units of red cells and another unit of platelets on Friday.

Stay tuned for more news later.