Cathy's CML BMT: Welcome

Monday 15 November 2010

Welcome

Hello and welcome to my blog. I have set this up so that I can keep my family and friends up to date on how I am doing as I go through my bone marrow transplant to cure my chronic myeloid leukaemia.

The first thing I'll introduce you to is a whole new world of TLAs (three letter abbreviations) so from now on I am going to talk about BMT and CML. In fact, officially, I am not having a BMT but a stem cell transplant (SCT?!) but, for simplicity, I'll stick with BMT.

I will be going into University College Hosital (UCH - see?) on Wednesday 17 November and will let you know what is going on once I get there.

Watch this space...

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Glossary

I realise that I use a fair bit of medical jargon in my posts and you may not know what everything means, especially if you have not been following my story from the start. Therefore here are a few commonly used bits of jargon and what they mean. I'll add more as I think of them.

CML - Chronic myeloid leukaemia, the form of leukaemia which I have which is relatively rare but, fortunately for me, is quite treatable by drugs or bone marrow transplant.

GVHD - Graft versus host disease which, in essence, is my donor immune system rejecting me. Ideally I need a little of this to help clear up the leukaemia but not so much that it attacks the rest of me. It usually shows itself as a rash on me.

Cyclosporin - the immune suppressing drug any one who has had a transplant takes to control the level of rejection (either way). Luckily for me, bone marrow recipients only have to take it for a few months, it has some novel side effects (in particular hair growing on your face!)

Nebuliser - a way of administering liquid drugs by inhalation of oxygen bubbled through the drug -think hubble bubbles or the caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland. I have to take Pentamadine this way once a month to protect me from a form of pneumonia.

Michelle - not quite a technical term but my friend who also has CML and is a wonderful support. She appears quite a bit in my posts.

Your chance to help

Lizzie King, a lady at my church, works for the Anthony Nolan Trust which holds a register of bone marrow donors.

Last November she cycled around Cuba to raise money for the trust and did very well. Well done Lizzie, that was no small feat!

Even thought the event is now over you can still sponsor her if you wish. To do so please follow this link:

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/lizzieincuba

Thank you Lizzie for raising money for this important cause, and thanks to her sponsors too. I clearly have a very personal interest in this cause!

The Thomas family

Monday 15 November 2010

Welcome

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