One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

I am now on day 13 from my last cycle of chemo. So far so good! Haven’t had any fevers and am feeling pretty good other than the usual fatigue. And my sore throat finally cleared up! My counts are really low and still dropping. My WBC haven’t reached zero yet, but are close, and platelets are really low so I’ve been receiving transfusions the past few days. My blood is also low so I received a blood transfusion yesterday as well. My platelets don’t seem to be going up much with each transfusion so they think my antibodies are attacking them. I vaguely remember this happening the first time (3 years ago). It is pretty much luck of the draw when you receive these donated blood products. Sometime you react, sometimes you don’t, and sometimes your body will fight it off and sometimes it won’t. So strange! It will probably be another week or so before they start coming up on their own so if this trend continues I will need many more platelet transfusions.

Speaking of antibodies….I was told that my sister and both parents cannot be my donor because I have certain antibodies against them that would fight off the new stem cells, and would most certainly result in graft failure (meaning the transplant would fail). It was terrible news to hear since we were planning for my sister to be my donor, and if that didn’t work at least one of my parents. I don’t really understand everything about it and plan to ask the doctor at our next meeting. But what I think it means is that I have antibodies against the 5 antigens that don’t match. All 3 of them were a 5/10 match, so I believe I have antibodies against the 5 antigens that didn’t match, therefore my body would fight them off and the transplant wouldn’t take. Next route, Cord Blood.

A cord blood transplant is when they use the blood from an umbilical cord because it is rich in blood forming cells. It is a really good option and many people have done it. It’s actually more common than a haplo transplant. There are some downfalls as it takes longer to engraft and for blood cells to start forming causing a higher risk for infection, and you have the immune system of a baby so have a fragile immune system for quite some time. But the risk of GVHD is less, and some studies even show a lower relapse rate.  My only worry is their ability to find me a match, and once they do, having antibodies against it. In that case, I’m not sure what will be in store for me. But I am going to stay faithful that it will all work out! God always comes through, I truly believe that.