Guess Who's Back...

Little Bald Head has something important to say. Feel free to share!

Don’t be fooled by beautiful tresses,

Perfect coifs, or even crew cuts

The bravest girls have the baldest heads

We fight harder because the battle is tougher

We attack harder because our enemy is elusive

We hope harder because without hope there is nothing

We love harder because we know how precious life is

For all of those bald warriors out there – those who have fought their battle and those still fighting and those who will have to fight the fight someday. Stay strong.  Stay diligent. Believe in yourself.

Bald is beautiful.

BOBB Dilly Dilly!

Yesterday was the big Blast O  Brenda Booster™ day. The docs call this proceedure a DLI - Donor Lymphocite Infusion. Or Dilly,as I like to call it. Actually, the BOBB™ is the best name for it, in
my opinion.

The procedure was rather complicated. First. Brenda and Colleen went down to radiology VERY early in the morning, so Brenda could get something called an IJ - Intervenes in her Jugular. Yikes! Then they went over to aferesis where she was hooked up to a big machine that cycled through all
of her blood and pulled out the t-cells for me. This took close to four hours. When they were done, they literally ran with the bag of cells first, and then tended to Brenda second. She had a great nurse who made sure she was well taken care of during the procedure.

Then Brenda had to go back to radiology so they could remove the IV. Her neck is sore today and
will probably be sore for a few days.

Colleen was the best cheerleader. She stayed with Brenda, but also came up to my room to see how I
was making out.

They both came up when it was over and we had a nice hug and goodbye. Love these shirts that Colleen made for us.

At about 4 o'oclock, the bag of cells finally came up tp me. I thought it would be like my transplant, which was pretty simple - just hooked up to the bag. But instead, I was hooked up to a heart monitor for four hours and had my vitals taken every 30 minutes. It was a small bag of

cells but is run very slowly to avoid any serious intreaction.At one point, I must have had a small heart palpitation, because the machine started beeping and the nurses came running in and I was like "What?"

The Hubs sat with me throughout my end of the proceedings and was amazed at how often my vitals were checked and how long it took for that tiny bag to infuse. I am so glad he was here!

So now we wait for the cells for settle into the bone marrow and meet their old friends, Brenda's marrow. I hope they can work together to not only kill any leukemia  that might remain, but
to also graft 100% so I'll be all Brenda and none of me. Which sounds so odd. But that's the goal!

Go BOBB™!!