Today is day -2. I will receive my final dose of chemotherapy, it is called melphalan. I am on a seven day countdown, with day zero being the day I receive my stem cells back into my body.

Melphalan usually will cause mouth sores and throat sores and intestinal sores all the way through to the very bottom. Therefore, I am going to be chewing ice and swallowing ice starting 30 minutes before the infusion, all the way through the infusion, and for 30 minutes after the infusion.

After this infusion is completed, they will disconnect my IV. I will not need my IV again until Tuesday, which is day zero.

The chemo fatigue is starting to set in a little bit. It is not bad yet, but my counts in my blood are starting to drop. That is what is supposed to happen. The point of a stem cell transplant is to be able to administer extremely high doses of chemotherapy which will result in complete white blood cell destruction. My white blood cells are the problem, so they are going to obliterate them. The stem cells serve the purpose of helping my bone marrow to jump start much much quicker then it would without the stem cell infusion. I originally thought that the stem cells is what would heal me, but that is not true. What kills the cancer is the chemotherapy. Then the stem cells are used to recover my bone marrow and blood counts much quicker back to a normal capacity.

I am about to enter the thick of the battle. Let ‘er rip potato chip!

Hey, dig the cool Burkitts Lymphoma Society hoodie.

Www.burkittslymphomasociety.com