Good lord it's dusty in here

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more ..." - Shakespeare, Henry V, Act 3, Scene 1

or as Ronald Reagan put it, "There you go again."

Well, here we are again. Time to dust off the old blog and put it back to use. I am not going to repeat the Uncle Fester look-alike contest; if you want to see it, look in the older posts. Weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth will (hopefully) be kept to a minimum. For those of you new to this blog, the name is explained in the first posting. I'm sorry for the rather dry clinical nature of this post but I want to break the ice (for me) about getting it started again

One week from today, Tuesday 5/8, a port will be placed in my chest. Chemo starts the day after and runs for six days; they have - as of yesterday - canceled the one-day of TBI (total body irradiation) that I was to get the day before transplant. There will be two additional days of a different chemotherapy starting the day after the transplant. And then I have to be super-careful for the following six weeks until my immune system builds back up.
My brother arrives tomorrow night for two days of testing at Hopkins, then his wife comes Saturday and they will drive up to West Point for their son's graduation and the week of festivities it involves. (We are very proud of Steven and I am very sad about not being able to attend.) He returns on the Sunday after that for a pre-op day at Hopkins on Monday, then transplant Tuesday, check-up Wednesday and he goes home that night.
Some folks have asked about where the marrow comes from and how it gets into me. The marrow comes from my brother. He will be under general anesthesia when it's taken, and the only two spots I know for sure it will come from are in the back of the pelvis: two bony protrusions that you can feel on either side of the spine, just at or below your waistline. They have told me there will be more places, I don't want to know. Scott won't know unless he asks, but he will definitely know when he wakes up. He'll probably get some excellent pain medication too. And he gets to come to Baltimore! I'll take him out for a good crab cake, refrain from mentioning he's in a blue state and he'll be fine.
My first caregiver, Fred, arrives on Sunday night and he will see me through all the chemo before he returns to San Francisco. My local friend Steve will fill in for several days, then my friend Judy comes 6/1 to 6/13. Then it's my brother-in-law (Dennis's sister's husband) Joe until the 20th. After that my friend Joe from California followed by my mother and then Dennis's sister. An all-star line-up, better friends and a better mother you cannot find.

That's all for now folks. Back with more soon, including what I think and feel about all this.