Buffalo and beyond - update madubois63

[madubois63]

Got back a little while ago - long day!!! My dear friend Liz is an absolute angel sent from God. We wore matching sleeves (thank you sweetie). She, to keep her lymphodema in check and me from ever getting it (un-pressurized planes). I picked Liz up at 6:30 a.m. (Ugh), and we were in the air an hour later. Our first pilot, Carol, flew us to Ithaca (couldn't make the whole trip for personal reasons) in her SMALL 4 passenger plane. We had great weather and great conversation. Carol took up flying because of menopause - ha ha!!! I knew I loved her in that moment!! We met Dave in Ithaca and pretty much got up in the air immediately. His plane was smaller...not sure if we were in the plane or wearing it!! Once we got to Buffalo International, the hospital sent a car for us. We had time for lunch - ate in the hospital cafeteria. I HOPE the patient food is half as good as the cafeteria food. Then I meet with the nurses, a financial counselor (who was VERY happy I have Medicare/Medicaid) and then the doctor. Both Liz and I liked him very much. The actual search is now on for the donor. I had the "preliminary" search done that you all know about (free), and now they do a more intense screening out of the possible matches. This is where the costs begin. The ideal out of my potential donors would be a young, healthy female that hasn't been pregnant yet. The transplant could be done in 6 - 8 weeks. I'll have to be in the hospital for 1 - 2 months (ugh). They usually move the patients to an apartment in the area after that and watch them carefully for a total of 100 days. There is a possible chance of getting graft verses host disease (rejection), and this can be really serious. It usually happens within the 100 days. My new, new (transplant) doctor knows my old, new doctor (leukemia) very well, and he will let me come home to be watched for the 100 days and thereafter. I am thrilled about that!!!! I still have to do the "consolidation" (second round of chemo to keep me in remission until the transplant). I do that here in the hospital near me. I am scheduled to go in and start chemo on Tuesday - ugh. That chemo will last five days (24 hours a day except for shower time), and I may be out of the hospital within 2 weeks this time (hopefully). If all goes as planned (and you know it won't), I hope to be home and done with all this (transplant) for Christmas. Now that would be a gift!!! Anyway, I have mixed emotions but mostly feel pretty good about the whole thing. we finished up with the vampire (phlebotomist), and then started the next part of the adventure...a car took us to our return pilot's business. Bob then had a friend drive us all to a teeny tiny runway where his plane was. It was getting a little cloudy, but take off was great. I sat in the back, and Liz sat in the co-pilots seat. He explained everything to us, and Liz even took the wheel for a bit. She had us on our side and then panicked! we hit some rain and flew through some pretty intense clouds (remember, this was a 4 seater). All in all, it was a really great flight. we flew right over my house (I got all excited). Angel Flight America was AMAZING in coordinating everything, and the pilots are just AMAZING for donating their planes, time, gas and fees!!! Please spread the word about this FANTASTIC organization...I took pictures and will post them tomorrow after my daughter downloads them for me. Sorry this is so long. I wanted to write this just once and send it out to family and post on the boards (your family too). I'm exhausted and going to bed now - love you all!!!!