Treatment day 12; Chemotherapy is complete, preparing for tomorrows transplant, excellent video by stem cell brother Brian. (Please watch)

Well now that I have completed the chemotherapy regime my immune is dying and will be non existent in a day or two. This is a critical time for me to be extra vigilant about bacteria and viruses. My body will be highly prone to illness. As such, I will be in complete isolation until my blood levels come back up to a level my doctor is comfortable with. My understanding is the time period is somewhere between 6-10 days.

Diet will play a big part in protecting my body. No fresh vegetables, nuts or fruits. Everything will need to be cooked and cooked well. Processed foods are actually preferred as there is less chance of contamination. Personal hygiene is also very important, use a lot of hand sanitizes, anti septic wipes, and try as hard as possible to not touch your eyes and or mouth. Those are great sources to introduce germs into a low immune host body.

Protecting my body is paramount following the transplant tomorrow. Following the transplant I feel the biggest risk to my health will be an infection. An infection on its own does not sound all that scary. Just run down to the clinic, get some antibiotics and all is well. Not so easy for a patient with a compromised immune system. Even the smallest fever can be deadly or end up in the ICU (and lots of pain). And if not caught almost immediately cause death.Without a solid immune system an infection can become systemic quickly and antibiotics could be rendered useless.Therefore I will be checking my temperature three times a day. Should the number that Dr. Fedorenko alerts me to is reached, it is straight to the emergency room. We are told to be assertive to the ER that I am a transplant patient with a fever and a compromised immune system and need IV antibiotics immediately. Kind of alarming stuff huh? But that is not the time to be timid. My life may be on the line. Personal experience from sepsis has me on high alarm so I am not fooling around with it. Both my Mother and a Grandmother passed away from sepsis. They did not have a compromised immune system as I will be contending with.

Transplant day is right around the corner now. Preparation this morning included getting my hair cut to the scalp. The dome doesn't look as bad as I thought it would. Ha!

 Transplant will take place in the afternoon. As scary as the last paragraph sounds, I am not nearly as concerned with the transplant procedure. Once we get started it will take about 45 minutes because it will be done in three parts. This is because of the difficulty that we had during aphresis. Aphresis took three attempts to harvest enough stem cells and as such they need to be transplanted individually. I will be awake and talking to the doctors and nurses throughout. One of my stem cell brothers will video the transplant and I will post it on my blog. Mostly I will feel that this transplant is a defining moment in my life on several fronts.

• I am fighting a foe who has had the upper hand on me for 18 years unabated
• I am throwing counter punches back at this foe 
• I am fighting back at an invisible disease that others cannot see but I know only too well
• I strive to live my life with the best quality of life possible
• I refuse to just whither away into invalidity
• I love my family, life, and humanity way to much to just give up and do nothing
• I have learned a lot about myself and others during this journey of 18 years (some very good some not very good)
• I am strong enough to take charge of my own health care, to research, seek multiple medical assessments and recommendations. I have seen many doctors and taking many different medicines,
• Come to the conclusion that I am perhaps my own best advocate for my health. Which brings me to fly half way around the world to seek the best possible treatment for my illness. Not an easy decision or thing to do. But that is what a determined person does. 

Here is my message to Multiple Sclerosis:

 GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY I AM TAKING YOU DOWN!!!!!

I would love it if my readers would please watch this video of my stem cell brother Brain Melton.

Brian was interviewed by a local TV station in California about his trip to Moscow for his MS treatment. Brian and I are on the same floor two rooms apart. He gives an excellent interview and the TV crew did an outstanding job of covering HSCT. Bravo!

Click the link below and another drop down menu will allow you to link directly to the video

http://abc30.com/health/fresno-man-goes-to-extreme-lengths-to-fight-multiple-sclerosis/1606948/

Today was Brian's stem cell transplant. The procedure only lasted for 7 minutes. Watch the transplant in its entirety.

https://www.facebook.com/brianjackleman/videos/10209990388870319/