Update
Jan 13th 2006PeterHospital Stay
At last I’ve managed to get the blog working - many thanks to Mark for setting it up and hosting it for me!
Internet access is a bit tricky at the moment - at times the ISP regards this as “Adult Content” and blocks it (Mark - what else are you hosting?) but so far it seems OK.
Since admission on Wednesday, it has been all go. The Hickman line was inserted on Wednesday morning and the pre-conditioning treatment started in the afternoon.
The last two treatment phses (in 2002 and 2004) relied on large doses of chemotherapy or radiotherapy to attack the Lymphoma cells, and the self donated stem cell transplant was to repair the collateral damage caused by the chemo. This time the aim is different, and by using an unrelated or matched donor, the idea is that the incoming immune system will seek out and destroy the cancer cells - a true immunological approach, which intuitively feels like a good thing to do! The pre-conditioning treatment is to ‘make room’ for the incoming cells and suppress my own bone marrow to allow the ingraft to establish itself alongside my existing one, and eventually take over. Pretty advanced stuff.
So far feeling good in my little room in Guy’s - I’ll try and keep this site updated as time passes!
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