Not so bad

I've had a few phone calls and messages from friends who have read the last blog and are really sorry to hear the bad news, and I realise that I may have been overly negative in that post as that was how I was feeling at the time. I shall acknowledge the disappointment of having the transplant pushed back 3 maybe 4 weeks and proceed on a much more positive note...

I had an appointment with consultant yesterday and we have it confirmed that we have another donor. She is a female, 50 and from Germany. She is a 9/10 match, so as good as the Portuguese male, and the slight increased risk in GvHD which we will get due her being female is generally controllable and this can also be a good thing as it also means an increased chance of GvD which we want. He discussed the odd balancing act or trade off which exists because of this, i.e. they want to minimise GvHD but they want GvD, GvHD is nasty but is generally controllable and generally short-term, GvD is desirable as it results in the long-term cure. So for short-term discomfort you get long-term cure. The less short-term discomfort the less likely this is to cure. Are you happy to take a little bit more risk with short-term affects if it means you are more likely to be cured? Yes I bloody well am. So bring on the woman.

I don't want any more jokes about getting a sudden urge to knit in hospital.

We also found there is another potential donor they are looking into before this goes ahead just to make sure she (it is another woman) is any better. Results of SFLC and bone marrow aspirates show no increase in Myeloma cells again which is great and maybe the reason my consultant feels he has a bit of time to look into another donor first. The urgency is there but not as bad, and I think the fact that 2 donors have been found has possibly made them think it is worth keeping on looking for more. Which makes me feel that any nasty procedure which was discussed a while ago is well off the cards now. Which is great.

So we feel loads more positive about all this having had this meeting so I want to make sure anyone who cares realises that this loss of a donor, although disappointing, really isn't that bad.

I also passed my lung function test, so I am happy that nothing to do with my body that will hold this up. It was also conducted by a much more relaxed fellow who explained everything to me, let me see the computer screen as I was doin it and just kept telling me 'that was spot on'. He made me realise the last tester's hammering for that 'last little bit' in my lungs was actually a bit unnecessary as my lungs are well within the normal range and that last little bit would have made no difference to the results!