Kind of a wierd day today. Woke up with a pretty bad headache and the blurred vision again, which was kind of wierd because I hadn't been reading or anything. The nurse gave me some oxycontin which helped with the headache and soon after my vision improved, which is good. Talked to the nurse practitioner and she wanted to consult with my attending-doctor-on-rotation, Dr. Wang. Dr. Wang has ordered an MRI for me today just to rule a few factors out. Apparently they just want to make sure there's no bleeding. Also I'll get a lumbar puncture sometime today or tomorrow just to confirm there's no lukemia inside the nervous system. They did that before at wilson but I guess they just want to make double sure, because of the new symptoms in the past couple of days.
As far as high school biology, I had a consult with the bone marrow transplant Dr. this afternoon. Apparently I do have an unusual "risky" genetic trait in the white cells. I guess it's 47 chromosomes instead of the 46 that I am supposed to have, plus some other random genetic fuzz. So the long and the short of it is they are going to get me on the list for bone marrow transplant just in case I might need it. The doctor said they don't really know if I need it now or not, but it's good to get on the list because it can take up to 3 months to line up a donor. If for some reason my ALL doesn't respond correctly to the chemo, they'll dump that plan and do the marrow transplant instead.
The good news is, as a white caucasian male, finding an exact match should be a snap. Interestingly enough, my parents can't donate, as they would have only half the match that my chromosomes would need.
Frankly, the bone marrow transplant procedure at first blush doesn't sound so terrible. Apparently it's even anticlimactic. They do a different kind of chemo on me for about a week, then they just hang a bag of donor blood and connect me up, and eventually it works its way into the marrow and hopefully will start growing the new stuff. I'd be in the hospital another 4-6 weeks, then have to stay in buffalo for another 100 days at minimum. The wierd part is, let's say a female donates to me, my bone marrow chromosomes will be XX, but the rest of my chromosomes will be XY. Apparently my blood type would change too, because that's where the blood is made (inside the bone marrow.)
Oh, and I had a really yummy chicken salad sandwich for lunch today. That's where the chicken salad reference came from. I know, a little random!
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