DEMO DIVA

So big decisions to be made. MY younger brother is an excellent bone marrow match for a transplant, and very willing to be a donor.There are three categories of Leukemia patients: Favorable, moderate or Unfavorable. If you're favorable you can select just chemotherapy and expect a good outcome with just Chemo, if you're unfavorable you must hope that you can find a transplant donor since you're odds are not good for survival with just Chemo. I of course am in the moderate group which means my outcome can go either way. This makes for a great deal of deep thinking about which option is best for me. No one can make this decision but me. If I opt for continuing with Chemo then I have four more rounds of six days in the hospital then three to four weeks of recovery so around four to five months in remission after treatment with a 30% chance of long term survival. I have done very well on the the Chemo with minimal problems. I was very healthy without any other serious chronic health problems before the diagnosis. I could easily be part of the 30%. A bone marrow transplant is to quote my doctor "the riskiest thing we do in a hospital" and creates all sorts of scenarios for complications. No matter how good a match there is always a chance of rejection, immunosuppresent drugs leave your body totally vulnerable to life threatening infection. The convalescence after a transplant can be expected to take as long as a year with the four to six weeks in the hospital to start and months of recovery at home.The up side is a 60% chance of long term survival, or about double what you would have with just Chemo. You could just do the Chemo and risk a relapse at which point the process starts all over again and there is no choice but to do a transplant, and then you may be older and sicker. Oh what would a OUJI board say ? I have a week to make my final decision. In the meantime I've been cooking and doing body work to increase my core strength.
The pictures are of two of my sisters and I. My younger sister, a physician was kind enough to go with me to my doctor's appointment and listen to all my options and give input. She also shaved my stubbly head which was making me crazy and was going to fall out anyway. The other pictures ( I'll post on Facebook ) are my latest food creations. Trader Joe's had some boxes of Georgia peaches for sale so I made a luscious peach cobbler served warm with vanilla ice cream. The entree is a Mahi Mahi poached in a shallot white wine lime butter sauce over organic spaghetti with steamed asparagus and fresh beet greens from my garden with a tomato reduction sauce flavored with fresh herbs from the garden.
I go back into the hospital tomorrow for my third round of Chemo and will be there until next Tuesday or Wednesday. I'll post my room and phone numbers on Facebook. Most of the time I like calls and visitors but sometimes not. Call if you plan to visit and I'll tell you how it goes. Thanks everybody for all your support, it helps me tremendously !