So, after a few healthy months, Barney has had a relapse of his leukaemia. It isn’t totally unexpected, it was always going to be a long long road. We’ve tried chemo, and it hasn’t fully done the trick. And so the next stage is a bone marrow transplant.
Luckily, Barney’s older brother Jack, is an excellent match. It’s a tough call to make; put one through an operation to save the other… how do you explain that to the older without making him feel like nothing but a vessel.
Marrow transplantation and treatment of leukaemia has, however, come a long long way. Tom received a marrow transplant that failed; at the time it required his donor to go under general anaesthetic and have a hole drilled into the back of their pelvis to extract marrow. Thankfully, there are less invasive methods, thanks to the little miracles that are stem cells. Whoever is against stem cell research will get an unashamed kicking from me. Really.
For Jack, this will mean that he has an injection to cause him to over produce bone marrow stem cells, which will escape into his blood stream. After 4 days, he will have some blood taken, which will be filtered and the stem cells extracted, which will be transfused to Barney. Because Jack is only a child, he’ll have to go through this process for a few weeks, maybe five or six, to get enough stem cells to make the procedure for Barney possible.
It’s less invasive, it doesn’t require Jack to undergo a general anaesthetic. It’s time consuming, and it may cause a little discomfort.
For Barney, it will require extensive chemotherapy and radiotherapy, to kill off ALL his bone marrow. He’ll have zero immune system until the stem cell infusion, and will require blood transfusions as he won’t be able to make any white blood cells. He’ll be super prone to infection, and it’s a horrible horrible thing to see anyone go though. But hopefully, he’ll only go through this the once. He’s going to be in hospital for at least 2 months, maybe 3. He won’t be able to come home for Christmas; which I find upsetting. But he will have an excellent chance of living to see many more Christmases, and that is the thought that I have to keep in my mind.
We’ve spoken to Jack about the procedure, and explained to him that he has lots of good stuff in his blood that his brother needs – and his response was to ask when they could start taking it out. No questions about if it will hurt, or how they will take it out. Just when can he do it.
He remembers his dad, and was the most upset that Barney got sick too. Now he is in a position to do something tangible to help, and is in a better position than most of us, who just have to hang around and try not to convey how helpless we all feel. It’s hard to be a cheerleader when your heart is heavy.
But there is light at the end of the tunnel, and while the doctors are super confident that this will do the trick, we’re also aware that it’s not the last trick in the bag.
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Kat!
I send you strength and love and all the mental support you may need now. I know its not enough, but I hope it helps you a little. If you need to talk, let me know. Kez has my number, and hopefully, by the end of this week I will be online again. I moved to this new place, and have to find new internet contract, but will be online again soon.
Keep your head up!
Many hugs
R