Six sessions of TBI (Total Body Irradiation) has been brutal for Kendall, but he did finish his last (hopefully forever) treatment today. He has to stand during the each entire procedure, which is difficult when you feel so weak and nauseous. Kendall did get a break today in the middle of his treatment, though, when there was a power outage that affected all of Salt Lake valley. They were able to get things going again after about 20 minutes or so.
Kendall has of course had many involved panels and testing done leading up this transplant. A few weeks ago we learned that he had been exposed to the Epstein Barr virus (no surprise, since I had mono when we were first married), but he also tested positive for exposure to something called CMV (Cytomegalovirus). CMV is something that can lay dormant in your blood and normally isn’t a big deal because a typical immune system will just suppress it. It can cause a lot of complications after a bone marrow transplant, however, enough so that it’s something they screen donors for and won’t use a donor if they test positive for it unless they don’t have any other options. Amongst other things, post-transplant CMV can attack the lungs, or other major organs like the heart or kidneys (if I’m remembering correctly – there are literally risks to every organ following transplant, so sometimes it’s hard to remember what causes what – just the consenting going through the paperwork of all the risks and possible side effects took more than an hour and a half….). We learned today that his latest lab work showed that the CMV in Kendall’s blood is now active. You can’t cure CMV and they were already planning to preemptively give Kendall medications to combat the effects of CMV. So nothing really will change as far as his treatment plan, it’s just something they will be monitoring very, very carefully the next few weeks and months.
Everything is still a go for the actual transplant to happen tomorrow. Kendall’s sibling has finished all of the donor side of things (which included going to hospital every day starting last Saturday to get shots to stimulate white blood cell production, getting a central line placed, and then the actual donation process today that ended up taking most of the day instead of the expected hour and a half – maybe the power outage slowed things down?). The doctors don’t know exactly when everything will be ready, but they estimate that the transplant will probably happen around 11:30 a.m.
I was able to visit with Kendall up at Huntsman tonight. He’s not feeling great physically (tired, really nauseous), but he seems ready to get this next step behind him. I’ll keep you updated on how things go!
