Next stop...City of Hope

I just finished a battery of pre-tests over the last three days at City of Hope and the next step is transplant. I'm being admitted this Sunday February 21 and will then undergo 4 days of full body radiation followed by a week of chemo. This is to knock my immune system down really low and wipe out my bone marrow completely. I will receive my bone marrow transplant on March 2. (My new 2nd birthday) It will be like a blood transfusion.... 3-4 hours of getting someone else's stem cells and then it's a waiting game of making sure my body and the new cells "get along". There is a risk of Graft vs. Host disease, but my doctor has ways of minimizing that and/or combating it if it happens. I am a little scared but I am in good hands. I will be watched closely by my doctors for about 100 days after transplant and then return home to finish recovering for another 6-9 months.
I am so grateful we are at this point in this battle and that someone has agreed to give of themselves and donate to me. It is literally saving my life and I don't even know who they are. Yet. I will be given that opportunity in about a year.
It is a scary thing to have a life-threatening disease. I never thought I would know what that feels like. It has changed me. I see how precious and fragile life is. My list of "what's important" has changed a bit too. All we truly have are each other and when I think about all the people who have done so much for me and my family over the last 5 months I am blown away by the love and compassion shown to us. It reaffirms that we do only have one another and those solid, loving relationships will help us through anything that we are faced with. We are all so fortunate to have such a strong community of amazing people around us. It really does take a small army to take on this thing called life and TOGETHER we will KEEP GOING!