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"Hey, all. It&amp;amp;#8217;s Genevieve, Erin&amp;amp;#8217;s Maternity Replacement. As you may have read yesterday, things are a little hectic for Erin right now. A new baby and weirdo supervirus weren&amp;amp;#8217;t enough excitement for Erin, so she decided to go out and buy a house. That she has to move into this week. Sooooo&amp;amp;#8230;. We&amp;amp;#8217;re going to give Erin a little reprieve from the Blog this week. While she is busy packing up boxes and moving out of the city, you will be entertained by a lineup of spectacular guest bloggers. The first is Lea, who I know you&amp;amp;#8217;ve all been wondering about. She&amp;amp;#8217;s finally in Seattle for her transplant and, so far, things are going looking good. I&amp;amp;#8217;ll let you tell her the rest. Talk soon, Genevieve Hello from Seattle! Hi guys. It is Lea, from San Francisco. I am finally at the Hutch preparing for my bone marrow transplant! Bill, Kimo, and I are staying at a local hotel doing all the pre-transplant testing that is needed before the actual transplant. The hotel room is tiny and Kimo misses the beach, but we&amp;amp;#8217;re happy. It&amp;amp;#8217;s so good to be here! My days are crammed. Every day is jam-packed with appointments. I see nutritionists, dentists, gynecologists, and many, many other &amp;amp;#8220;ists&amp;amp;#8221;; all of whom are trying to make sure that I am healthy enough to make it through this transplant. I&amp;amp;#8217;ve also been meeting a lot with financial planners. Bone Marrow is expensive! The transplant process will cost between 500,000 and 1 million dollars. My insurance pays for most of it, but we still have to deal with putting ourselves up in Seattle and countless other incidental costs. I am just ecstatic that this is all finally happening, which will probably sound weird to you when I tell you what the transplant is going to be like. Apart from their life-saving capabilities (for which I am very grateful), bone marrow transplants are kind of a bummer. Starting on December 4th, I get hit with a stream of chemotherapy so intense that it will blast all of my own cells (ugly CML cells and healthy ones) to oblivion. It&amp;amp;#8217;s so strong that it will wipe out every vaccination I&amp;amp;#8217;ve ever had (this means that a year after the transplant I get to start over, taking all of my booster shots, measles, mumps, you name it). If left alone, this amount of chemo could kill a person. But, luckily, I&amp;amp;#8217;m not left alone. On December 11, my donor&amp;amp;#8217;s cells come to save the day. Her healthy cells will be pumped into my body, where they will start reproducing in my bone marrow. Gradually, the good stuff will take over completely and I&amp;amp;#8217;ll be left with all healthy cells. No CML! Oh, and here&amp;amp;#8217;s a crazy thing: right now, I have type B+ blood. My donor has type A+ (hence her name of late&amp;amp;#8212;the A+ donor!). After the transplant is over, I&amp;amp;#8217;ll have her blood type instead of my own. Isn&amp;amp;#8217;t that wild?? It sounds like a CSI episode, but it&amp;amp;#8217;s not. It&amp;amp;#8217;s my life and my cure. After the transplant is complete I stay in the hospital for a few weeks, just to make sure that everything checks out OK. That month stuck in a hospital is almost what has me the most nervous! How exactly does a person spend a month in the hospital? Please, dear readers, I beg you: How should I keep myself from going crazy? If you have secrets for this kind of thing, please share them. I&amp;amp;#8217;m going to need a lot of distraction. Oh, and just one more thing: My donor remains anonymous until one-year post transplant and at that point it is her choice if she wants to reveal her true identity. I am allowed to write to her as long as I don&amp;amp;#8217;t give away my name or tell her where I am being treated. How can I possibly thank someone for giving me a chance at life? I am so incredibly grateful to be here and to have Ms. A+ give me healthy cells. I just wish there were words or maybe a little gift I could give her- any ideas? For once, I am at a loss for words. Thanks, you guys. Your advice is always so helpful. I&amp;amp;#8217;ll check back in with you before too long. Love, Lea"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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