Howard's Stem Cell Transplant
Donation protected
I am a 3 time cancer survivor; Melanoma in 2010, Lymphoma in 2012 and in 2017 a recurrence of the same Lymphoma. I just completed 6 courses of strong R-CHOP chemotherapy and as of March 2018 I am once again in remission and am otherwise "cancer free"! I am an Army Vet being taken care of by the Veterans Administration but, I now need help in paying for the costs associated with going to Nashville in May for up to 3 months with my "support person" for a Stem Cell Transplant (SCT) procedure. My wife (she's ex-Air Force) and I are both collecting our Social Security but that really only covers our monthly expenses. My part-time job fills in all the gaps. The VA is paying for transportation and lodging and such for us but, I am going to be very short of funds because of my missing work for a couple months, along with the miscellaneous costs that the VA does not cover and otherwise will not reimburse me and my support person for. I can't expect my support person to shoulder much of the costs either.
I will be my own stem cell donor (Autologous Transplant) which will make it all that much easier to get through but, the whole process will still be pretty stressful. I would rather not have to go through the SCT but, , , , I've survived this same Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma twice now and the Oncologists tell me that my lymphoma is non-germinal and that IF it comes back for a third time the chemo that I will have to endure will be terrible compared to the R-CHOP I just went through! No thank you! Sign me up for the SCT. The SCT will not be a 100% guarantee but, I am told that it is my best, if not only, option.
Everybody thinks that I am going to have such a wonderful time "hanging out" in Nashville. Ya, right. There will be a couple weeks of daily, almost all day, inpatient testing, procedures and stem cell collecting from my blood stream. Then it gets gets REAL when they put me in isolation in the ICU for a couple weeks while they give my some very strong High Dose Chemo (HDC) to basically kill my bone marrow, and then let my body "recover"! Then a couple more weeks of being in-and-out of the VA medical center once they put the good stem cells back into me! They tell me that the chemo will be so strong that before they let me go home they will have to give me all new "childhood immunizations"!!
I will be my own stem cell donor (Autologous Transplant) which will make it all that much easier to get through but, the whole process will still be pretty stressful. I would rather not have to go through the SCT but, , , , I've survived this same Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma twice now and the Oncologists tell me that my lymphoma is non-germinal and that IF it comes back for a third time the chemo that I will have to endure will be terrible compared to the R-CHOP I just went through! No thank you! Sign me up for the SCT. The SCT will not be a 100% guarantee but, I am told that it is my best, if not only, option.
Everybody thinks that I am going to have such a wonderful time "hanging out" in Nashville. Ya, right. There will be a couple weeks of daily, almost all day, inpatient testing, procedures and stem cell collecting from my blood stream. Then it gets gets REAL when they put me in isolation in the ICU for a couple weeks while they give my some very strong High Dose Chemo (HDC) to basically kill my bone marrow, and then let my body "recover"! Then a couple more weeks of being in-and-out of the VA medical center once they put the good stem cells back into me! They tell me that the chemo will be so strong that before they let me go home they will have to give me all new "childhood immunizations"!!
Organizer
Howard Alward
Organizer
Melbourne, FL
