Introduction

Soundtrack  (Go ahead, Click on it)


I never thought I would spend my 60's  becoming an amateur hematologist.


At the request of many of you, I herewith set my hand to relating the events which have led me into my present circumstances, and an ongoing account of  the processes and procedures I am undergoing, both physical and mental. 

I am in need of a hematological oil change, technically Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, from now on referred to as the Bone_marrow_transplant or simply BMT

In October of 2011,  I was diagnosed with MDS,  specifically  De novo REFRACTORY CYTOPENIA WITH MULTILINEAGE DYSPLASIA., a condition I had never heard of.  A BMT is the only potentially curative remedy for MDS.  

Yes, this is the same procedure that Robin Roberts of Good Morning America recently underwent, and MDS  and BMTs were in the national spotlight for a while.

This blog will start with a retrospect of the medical issues I have faced during last couple of years, until I catch up with the present. There will no doubt be flashbacks and I hope  "ah ha" moments of clarity, and some rants about big pharma, pollution, and nutrition. No doubt there will be biographical notes too, and posts on sailing, living aboard a boat, BMW motorcycles, woodworking, and  of course music. And I hope that it will morph into reflections on the "New Normal" on the other side of my BMT, as I start over with a new blood type and immune system.


So buckle up and hang on while I relate the roller coaster ride that we have been on.

Here are some of the most helpful resource sites that I found early on.
Bookmark them if you want, but don't get trapped in an information overload yet, unless you want to.
There are moments of Geek ahead.

The MDS site

The National Marrow Donor Directory

Understanding your Blood Tests  Invaluable for anyone who has to have any kind of blood test.

the MarrowForums   you can  read posts without logging on.

And here is a must read  book on cancer:

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

By: 

 Siddhartha Mukherjee

Scribner

The Emperor of All Maladies is a magnificent, profoundly humane “biography” of cancer—from its first documented appearances thousands of years ago through the epic battles in the twentieth century to cure, control, and conquer it to a radical new understanding of its essence. Physician, researcher, and award-winning science writer, Siddhartha Mukherjee examines cancer with a cellular biologist’s precision, a historian’s perspective, and a biographer’s passion. The result is an astonishingly lucid and eloquent chronicle of a disease humans have lived with—and perished from—for more than five thousand years. The story of cancer is a story of human ingenuity, resilience, and perseverance, but also of hubris, paternalism, and misperception. Mukherjee recounts centuries of discoveries, setbacks, victories, and deaths, told through the eyes of his predecessors and peers, training their wits against an infinitely resourceful adversary that, just three decades ago, was thought to be easily vanquished in an all-out “war against cancer.” The book reads like a literary thriller with cancer as the protagonist. From the Persian Queen Atossa, whose Greek slave cut off her malignant breast, to the nineteenth-century recipients of primitive radiation and chemotherapy to Mukherjee’s own leukemia patient, Carla, The Emperor of All Maladies is about the people who have soldiered through fiercely demanding regimens in order to survive—and to increase our understanding of this iconic disease. Riveting, urgent, and surprising, The Emperor of All Maladies provides a fascinating glimpse into the future of cancer treatments. It is an illuminating book that provides hope and clarity to those seeking to demystify cancer. -- from the publisher

Cheers, 

Cap'n Chris