madubois63 update Feb. 3

[madubois63]

January was my 7 year anniversary of surviving breast cancer, and today is my 4 month anniversary since the bone marrow transplant! Although recovery is going slow (due to my many years of fighting BC), it has been quite uneventful (a good thing). Except for the nasty cold that kept me down for a bit and the internal itches (due to the changes happening in my body) I have done pretty well. Although I never wanted to think about it, the last 4 months have been a very critical time for me. A rejection, graft v. host disease or that simple cold could have killed me; but with the grace of God, the many prayers and well wishes, the love and support of friends and family and the great doctors and nurses that I have been lucky enough to have, I am still here and doing pretty good! The last bone marrow biopsy taken showed NO LEUKEMIA, and the transplant post-testing done 2 weeks ago, showed that the transplant has taken and my DNA/RNA is more than 95% my donor. My opportunity to commit a crime as me are over, but if I commit a crime now, I can bring up reasonable doubt because there is someone else in the world that has the same DNA. Pretty strange, huh? Actually, I am considered a medical "chimera" (if your interested, see definition below). My blood type is still part B+ and part A+. I continue to receive O+ (universal for me) blood transfusions weekly, and I get tired really quickly; but I walked around the mall the other day and didn't need to sit (great improvement). I went to my daughter's best friend's sweet 16 party and even danced a little. It was really great for me, because after the big weight loss from being so sick, I fit back in to my little black dress!! My hair is growing in, and someone even complimented me on my haircut (strange). My love and prayers to all of you...

Chimeraplasty: A method of gene therapy based upon the use of a molecule called a chimeraplast, a synthetic blend of DNA and the related molecule RNA, to trick the patient's own cells to remedy a gene defect. (Many of my genes were defective)

Chimeraplasts are made to match the patient's sequence of base pairs (the molecular building blocks of DNA), except in one area, the area of the mutation (the change) that is responsible for the gene defect. There, the chimeraplasts have the correct sequence of base pairs in the DNA.

The chimeraplasts are designed to attach to the patient's DNA and activate the DNA repair system, a system that cells normally use to correct mistakes they make in replicating their DNA.

The patient's DNA repair system is tricked into treating the chimeraplast as the correct version of the DNA and changing the patient's gene to match the chimeraplast, thus correcting the mutation. (The new marrow is what has tricked my system in to correcting the defects)

The term "chimeraplast" derives from the legendary monster made up of incongruous parts. In Greek mythology, the Chimera was an awesome fire-breathing monster with the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a serpent. In medicine, a person who is composed of two genetically distinct types of cells is called a chimera. This may be due to the fusion of two embryos at a very early (blastula) stage. More commonly today, the formation of a chimera is due to transplantation. When bone marrow from one person is used to reconstitute the bone marrow of an irradiated recipient, the recipient becomes a chimera.