My SCT Plan!!

Alright, big day for me today at Emory Winship Cancer Institute! It went like this:

Lorraine and I met with Dr. Nadia, the radiation oncologist, who detailed my upcoming radiation treatment. Dr. Nadia, at Emory, is the one who’s recommending my treatment; she will contact a local radiation oncologist who will deliver my actual treatment, she’ll facilitate a meeting with them next week, and discuss my recommended treatment with them within the context of my transplant at Emory. She says that this is not at all uncommon and the local radiation oncologists are quite cooperative in agreeing with the recommended treatment. I will have 2 ½ weeks of radiation, to begin September 18th, after collection has been completed the week before. After we discussed my grave concerns over radiating any portion of my esophagus because of my already significant risk of developing esophageal cancer, she concluded that the best course of action will be to avoid it as much as possible and also to reduce by a small amount the amount of radiation delivered each day. They’ll also try to avoid my thyroid. Both my esophagus and thyroid will both still get some degree of radiation, so I still run the risk of developing hypothyroidism and also sustaining the (for me) bad effects of radiation to my esophagus. We’ll just do the best we can. Can’t ask for more than that, right?

Following were a chest X-ray; extensive lab tests (about 10 vials of blood, drawn painfully and after several attempts peripherally, rather than from my port as the heparin can skew the results;) and a urine analysis.

Then I met with my oncologist, Dr. Waller; my transplant coordinator nurse, Jeanie; and my pre-transplant social worker, Ali. We talked about the timeline and plan for upcoming treatment, he reviewed my negative PET and good-as-it-can-be prognosis and associated risks, and we confirmed that Lorraine and I are prepared for what lies ahead. He answered all of my questions, even printing out a study I’d asked about which compared PET negative results to PET positive results going into the transplant.

Here’s the timeline:
o Week 9/4 – 9/10: Meet with local radiation oncologist to discuss upcoming treatment
o 9/8 – 9/11: Give myself Neupogen shots twice a day for mobilization (to increase stem cell production)
o 9/10: Go to hotel near Emory
o 9/11: 6:30 a.m. – Labs; 7:30 a.m. neck catheter implantation surgery; 10:00 p.m. – AMD3100 shot given to me in hotel by visiting nurse
o 9/12: 7:30 a.m. – Stem cell collection begins – to be repeated daily, up to 4 days, until 5 million cells are collected
o 9/18 – 9/22: Radiation Monday through Friday
o 9/25 – 9/29: Radiation Monday through Friday
o 10/2 – 10/4: Radiation Monday through Wednesday
o 10/10: Picc line implantation surgery; admitted to hospital for high dose chemo and transplant, to stay in for about a month

So that’s the plan! I feel better now that I have some dates, and I’m really just so pleased to have this team of experts supporting me and working to get me well.