Mary Jo Update #2 - Getting Mary Jo well, an ecumenical project

Hello, everyone. 

We are in a transition period now. It was great to be able to go to the Chrism Mass, and participate in all of the Easter Triduum masses with Father Dale, Deacon Carl and Deacon Nick. Of course, Mary Jo couldn't go. I left immediately after it was over because, like Mary Jo, I must be careful about catching something and bringing it home. 

 Mary Jo has only been to Mass once since November. She went to 7 AM Mass one weekend after the last treatment and she was feeling good. She sat in a pew with no one else around her. After a few minutes, a woman sat down next to her, and immediately pulled out an inhaler and started coughing. That did it. She went back to Mass of the Air which she says Father Scott has been on quite a bit lately. 

Mary Jo is feeling great right now. The lymphoma is in remission and her blood levels are normal. We were able to celebrate Easter with the kids  and grandkids on Easter without either of us catching anything. We will be going back to Vanderbilt soon. They will give Mary Jo shots for 3-4 days to promote the production of blood cells in her bone marrow. Then they will hook her to a machine to remove and collect stem cells from her blood. It is sort of like a dialysis machine.

They need 2 million stem cells for the transplant. They said that normally they can collect that many in 2-3 sessions. The sessions last 7 hours. After they have collected enough stem cells, we will come back home for a week. We will be mostly in isolation that week. We don't want to go back down there with something that might cause them to postpone the transplant date. 

We will go back to Vanderbilt on at the end  of the month and move into an apartment close to the transplant center down there. They will give Mary Jo 5 days of heavy duty chemo on the days leading up to her transplant day. The last chemo treatment two days before her transplant will totally wipe out her bone marrow. An off day will follow, and then she will get her stem cells back on transplant day. It is only a two hour procedure. That will be her new birthday, or re-birthday. When she gets her life back. Hopefully, for a long time. When we were down there a couple of weeks ago, the social worker said that she had met with someone who has the same thing as Mary Jo who has been in remission for nine years. 

Without the transplant, I feel certain that, as we have been told by doctors here and in Nashville, she would back in treatment in less than two years. Even after the six chemo treatments that she had at Baptist East from November to February, low grade lymphoma cells were found in tissue samples from her small intestine that were analyzed after her colonoscopy last month. I was amazed that was possible. Mantle Cell Lymphoma is one of 3 or 4 Non-Hodgkins Lymphomas that they have trouble keeping in remission for very long without a transplant.

Our apartment down there will be near the hospital in case something happens. She is supposed to monitor her temperature closely throughout the days after the transplant. If she should have a temperature above 100°, I am supposed to take her to the emergency room asap.

They will be monitoring her blood levels daily. When her blood levels get back to normal, we can come home. They told us that usually takes around 30 days after the transplant. They also told us that it would take 100 days after the transplant before she would totally feel normal. So, we have a long road ahead of us. Updates will become more frequent while we are in Nashville.

Thanks for all of your thoughts and  prayers. We are truly blessed to have so many family, friends and people that we have never met praying for us. We are on prayer lists at Southeast Christian, Broadway Baptist, Saint Michael's Orthodox, and others. 

Getting Mary Jo well has turned into an ecumenical project.

May the peace of Christ and blessings of the Easter Season be upon us all, 

Gerry