Overview and background of my reasons for going to Singapore to receive HSCT for my M.S. in 2017. Well. I'm feeling really awkward; it's not comfortable for me to write about myself so publicly. However, I wanted to write this blog so I can update people about what's going on with the treatment - both in the planning stages, and while I'm over there. So here goes: Basically out-of-the-blue in February, I decided to look into stem cell treatment (Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation ( HSCT )) for my multiple sclerosis. I'd heard about this a couple of years ago, but didn't seriously consider it - it seemed prohibitively expensive and just generally not 'proven' enough for me. HSCT involves (at a basic level) suppressing the immune system with chemotherapy, and transplanting the patient's own stem cells (extracted before the chemo) to assist with the immune system's re-boot. The idea, as a treatment for MS (and other auto-immune conditi...
This is a photo from 15 years ago, taken the last time I was about to leave Singapore. Nowadays, I don't know if I'm quite up to dancing my way through the airport, but I assure you, I'm mentally doing the same thing! (Photo: circa 2002, when members of Bel Canto (award-winning senior girls' choir at Burnside High School) were on their way back from a festival in Vienna (look at those shoes Pens! Do you remember?? Converse for life!).) Blood results from Monday: White blood cell: 4.59 (normal now) Platelets: 198 (were normal last week; normal still) CMV: still negative (long may that last!) Blood results are pretty boring now; there are some results that are not normal, of course - polymorphs, monocytes, red blood cell (only just, give me a break! 3.6, when 3.9 is normal), haemoglobin (also only just, 11.0, 11.5 considered normal), haematocrit (PCV) (what?), RDW (red cell distribution width, oh of course!), and the presence of atypical mononuclear cells (which ...
The above is all I've taken away from my first appointment at the hospital today. Nah, jokes (although flattering), it was a lovely first visit, and really good to finally meet everyone. The heat and waiting outside the apartment for a taxi to Raffles Hospital meant that I was pretty bad at walking when I arrived. I felt like I gave Yati (the transplant co-ordinator / Assistant Manager / my point of contact once I was accepted for the treatment) a bit of a fright - I don't think she was expecting me to be having such difficulty walking (3.5 EDSS can be misleading, I guess, and I am so sensitive to the physical environment). But it was all good, and once I cooled down, things were a little easier. Anyway, she took my height and weight, to calculate how much drug I'll need for the chemo (photo courtesy of Paparazzi Peter): And then they took crazy amounts of blood (checking for viruses, antibodies, everything really). For my Tysabri family, there were no issue...
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